Review
Copyright ©2014 Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Sep 26, 2014; 6(4): 404-420
Published online Sep 26, 2014. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v6.i4.404
Fetal stem cell transplantation: Past, present, and future
Tetsuya Ishii, Koji Eto
Tetsuya Ishii, Office of Health and Safety, Hokkaido University, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0808, Hokkaido, Japan
Koji Eto, Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, Kyoto University, Shogoin Yoshida, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan
Author contributions: Ishii T investigated the reports on clinical trials and wrote the manuscript; Eto K assessed the analysis and revised the manuscript.
Supported by JSPS KAKENHI, No. 26460586(TI)
Correspondence to: Tetsuya Ishii, PhD, Office of Health and Safety, Hokkaido University, Kita8 Nishi5, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0808, Hokkaido, Japan. tishii@general.hokudai.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-011-7062126 Fax: +81-011-7062295
Received: July 7, 2014
Revised: August 26, 2014
Accepted: August 30, 2014
Published online: September 26, 2014
Processing time: 79 Days and 18.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Based on the history of fetal stem cell transplantation since 1928, this article discusses strategies for transplantation, with a focus on donor cells, cell processing, and the therapeutic cell niche, in addition to ethical issues associated with fetal origin. We described the stream line to current clinical trials using fetal and embryonic stem cells based on Clinical. Trials. gov. Finally, we discussed the perspective of fetal stem cell transplantation.