Transplantation of Fetal Stem Cells: a New Horizon for Treatment of Degenerative Diseases

Background: The purpose of the current study was to present an overview of different types of stem-cells and their application for treatment different degenerative disorders with specific focus on ongoing clinical trials. Methods: For the purpose of the current narrative review article, a comprehensive search was carried out on the ex-isting literature in Google Scholar, PubMed and Scopus using the keywords: stem-cell (fetal and mesenchymal), regen-erative. Relevant articles published from 1957 to 2013 are extracted and presented. Results: During the past decades, different types of stem-cells (including adult and fetal) have been used for treatment of a wide range of immunologic (Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, Di George syndrome), neurologic (Parkinson’s disease, Huntington Chorea, Cerebral Palsy), musculoskeletal (ALS), and cardiovascular diseases (heart failure and car-diomyopathies) as well as chronic and acute ulcers, and diabetes. Conclusion: The results of our study demonstrated that during the past decades, stem-cell technology has been ap-plied for treatment of a wide range of degenerative disorders with considerable success. The current ongoing clinical trials clearly demonstrate a great potential and a promising future for the technology in terms of offering curative treatment for a wide range of hitherto-incurable diseases.