Interest of cord blood stem cells

Interest in cord blood stem cells was raised because of the possibility, no w realised, of their use in clinical transplantation. The availability of o nly limited numbers of stem cells in cord blood compared to bone marrow or peripheral blood apheresis after cell mobilisation, led to experimental app roaches that first aimed to characterise and then manipulate the stem cells present in cord blood. Their phenotypical and functional characteristics a re not identical to those of stem cells in the bone marrow or those cells m obilised into the circulation. The cells selected for phenotype plus G(0) s tatus show the higher capacity to generate progenitor cells in vitro and wi ll offer the opportunity for mechanistic studies of stem cell self-renewal and proliferation. Another important field of exploration is to investigate the capacity of stem cells in cord blood for differentiation to tissues ot her than haemopoietic and to establish whether haemopoietic and non-haemopo ietic lineages originate in truly multipotential cells or in cells coexisti ng in cord blood, which have already been limited to differentiation into s pecific tissue. (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.