Regenerative medicine has witnessed unprecedented growth as a result of cell-based therapies for the treatment of an array of conditions. Therapy consists of the delivery of live cells by implantation, graft or injection to a patient burdened by disease. Many current therapies are autologous, meaning they use the patient’s own cells for the desired therapeutic purpose. Cell therapy has also recently adopted the idea of allogenic transplants and the field of allogenic cell therapy is growing.
Years of research have been dedicated to show that cell therapy can be safely used in humans. Although many successful clinical trials have shown the potential of cell therapy, some hurdles in the form of immunogenicity, toxicity and tumorigenicity remain for the future of this therapeutic avenue. Nevertheless, once these hurdles are overcome, the promise of cell therapy is almost limitless.