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Regenerative Medicine Using Pregnancy-Specific Biological Substances pp 375–381Cite as

Amniotic Fluid and Placenta Stem Cells

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Abstract

Human amniotic fluid has been used in prenatal diagnosis for more than 70 years. It has proven to be a safe, reliable, and simple screening tool for a wide variety of developmental and genetic diseases. However, there is now evidence that amniotic fluid may be more than just a diagnostic tool – it may be the source of a powerful therapy for a multitude of congenital and adult disorders. A subset of cells found in the amniotic fluid and placenta appears to be capable of maintaining prolonged undifferentiated proliferation. In addition, these cells can also differentiate into multiple tissue types that encompass the three embryonic germ layers of the embryo, suggesting that they could be used for a myriad of tissue engineering and cell therapeutic applications. It is possible that in the near future, we will see the development of therapies that use progenitor cells isolated from amniotic fluid and placenta for the treatment of newborns with congenital malformations as well as the development of therapies for adults that make use of cryopreserved amniotic fluid and placental stem cells. Here, we describe the isolation and characterization of pluripotent progenitor cells from amniotic fluid and placenta and the various cell lines derived from these cells. Finally, we discuss the potential future directions for this research.

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Acknowledgment

The author wishes to thank Dr. Jennifer Olson for editorial assistance with this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Urology, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Wake Forest University Health Sciences, Medical Center Boulevard, 5th Floor Watlington Hall, Winston-Salem, NC, 27157, USA

    Anthony Atala

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  1. Anthony Atala
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Correspondence to Anthony Atala .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Advanced Medical Research Inst., B.P.Poddar Hospital, Vidyasagar Hospital, Kolkata, India

    Niranjan Bhattacharya

  2. Dept. Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Boston University Medical Centre, E. Concord Street 85, Boston, 02118, Massachusetts, USA

    Phillip Stubblefield

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© 2011 Springer London

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Atala, A. (2011). Amniotic Fluid and Placenta Stem Cells. In: Bhattacharya, N., Stubblefield, P. (eds) Regenerative Medicine Using Pregnancy-Specific Biological Substances. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-718-9_36

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-718-9_36

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