Bücher der Reihe SpringerBriefs in Stem Cells

This volume thoroughly examines breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs), from basic definitions to techniques for identifying, isolating, culturing, and targeting BCSCs for therapy;

This book features the most cutting-edge work from the world's leading laboratories in this field and provides practical methods for differentiating pluripotent stem cells into hematopoietic lineages in the blood system.

Stem cells have ushered in widespread interest and exciting possibilities for cell based therapies. It presents an understanding of stem cells derived from human endometrium and examine how cells from these sources are being used to research and therapeutics for various clinical problems and diseases.

Induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells are mature cells that have been genetically reprogrammed so that they return to their embryonic state. It is not yet known if iPS stem cells and embryonic stem cells differ significantly. Today many fundamental belief systems in biology are shifting towards accepting that mature body cells can be reverted to an embryonic state without the help of eggs or embryos. With their changed identities, iPS cells are then ready to serve as new tools for research in the fields of disease pathogenesis, drug discovery, oncology, and cell transplantation. One example of this would be using iPS from a patient's mature cells to repair damaged tissue; it is thought that there would be very low incidence of rejection of the 'new' tissue in these cases. For the last four years, this therapeutic promise has been studied by hundreds of researchers worldwide in an effort to understand the ability of these cells to reverse their biological clocks.

Calcium is crucial in governing contractile activities of myofilaments in cardiomyocytes, any defeats in calcium homeostasis of the cells would adversely affect heart pumping action. The characterization of calcium handling properties in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (iPS-CMCs) is of significant interest and pertinent to the stem cell and cardiac regenerative field because of their potential patient-specific therapeutic use.