REVIEW ARTICLE Stem cell therapies 879 retina, damaged liver, extensive skin burns, diabetes, and Parkinson disease. Unfortunately, beyond hematological applications, the results for other clinical applications of stem cells have been disappointing, and several encouraging results reported in laboratory animals have not been reproduced in humans. 6 Overall, the promise of clinical applications of stem cells and their success have often been exaggerated by the news media. On the other hand, it

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... well known that stem cells residing in adult tissues are responsible for organ rejuvenation. However, this process occurs at a different pace in various tissues. While hematopoietic cells, intestinal epithelium, and epidermis are continuously replaced by new cells, this Introduction Stem cell therapies began 50 years ago with the first transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells to replace damaged hematopoietic systems. The successful application of these cells in the hematological setting encouraged attempts to employ them in treating several other clinical problems encountered in cardiology, orthopedics, neurology, diabetology, opthalmology, dermatology, and gastroenterology. 1-5 Accordingly, stem cell-based therapeutic strategies have been proposed for treating a multitude of clinical problems, including damaged myocardium after heart infarction, damage to the brain after stroke, damaged spinal cord after mechanical injury, age-related macular degeneration of the REVIEW ARTICLE