The isolation, culture and therapeutic application of pluripotent stem cells derived from human embryos

The use of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) for cell and organ replacement therapies has the potential to revolutionise medicine. These cells exhibit a stable genotype during prolonged undifferentiated culture in vitro, can differentiate into the three germ layers and are able to form multiple adult lineages both in vitro and in vivo. Since these cells were only isolated in 1998, their true therapeutic potential is only just becoming apparent. As a result, there have recently been a number of patents describing novel methods for the isolation, culture, differentiation and therapeutic application of these cells. This review will discuss recent patent applications in the field of hPSCs related to all these areas, and place them in the context of published data, where available.