Adult Stem Cell Explosion

I spent the holidays re-reviewing some 1,300 research papers published on mesenchymal stem cells in 2007.  At the turn of the millennium in 2000, just 90 mesenchymal stem cell research papers were indexed in the national library of medicine that year.  Think about that exponential growth.  If this publishing activity represented a business, growth like that would be enviable.  

The amazing thing about this review was the varied applications for these cells.  They are being used for orthopedic applications (like the Regenenexx procedure), plastic surgery, dentistry, heart muscle repair in many heart diseases including heart attack, cancer, healing skin wounds, diabetes, spinal cord injury, nerve injury, hearing loss, liver repair, lung repair, kidney repair, just to name a few.  We are truly seeing an explosion that will revolutionize the medicine of the next 10-20 years.  If you have a few minutes, this link will take you to the more than 4,000 articles that have been published on these powerful cells.