Chapter 25 Genetic Approaches in Human Embryonic Stem Cells and their Derivatives Prospects for Regenerative Medicine

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) were first derived from the inner cell mass of blastocyst-stage embryos in 1998 (Thomson et al., 1998). Isolation of hESCs opened up exciting new opportunities to study human development that is inaccessible in vivo and develop cell replacement approaches to the treatment of a broad range of diseases based on two unique properties: (1) self-renewal capacity: hESCs are able to proliferate for extended periods of time while maintaining their undifferentiated state and normal karyotypes in the proper culture conditions in vitro and (2) broad developmental potential: hESCs are pluripotent cells that can give rise to cell types representing ectodermal, mesodermal, and endodermal germ layers as assessed by in vitro formation of embryonic bodies (EBs) and in vivo teratoma assay (Itskovitz-Eldor et al., 2000; Schuldiner et al., 2000; Dvash et al., 2004).