Stem cell Origin Characteristics Preclinical/clinical studies
ES cells Inner cell mass of the blastocysts pluripotent stem cells biological and ethical problems teratoma formation graft versus-host disease on mdx mice [30]
iPS cells Reprogrammed mouse or human somatic cells pluripotent stem cells no ethical problems autologous transplantation possible teratoma formation on mdx mice,alphaSG-null and alphaSG-null/Scid/bg [67,73,74]
Amniotic fluid stem cells Amniotic fluid multipotent stem cells no ethical problems easy to isolate and expand in culture dystrophic mice [44-47]
Muscle -SP Cells Muscle tissue multipotent cells high proliferation Scid/bg immunodeficient mice [48,57,58]
Satellite cells Muscle fibres, under the basal lamina high self-renewal high capacity to generate skeletal muscle limited engraftment and migration Nude mice, pigs, trial on humans [51-54].
Mesoangioblast cells (MABs) Muscle blood vessels, pericyte high proliferation in vitro no tumor transformation able to pass the endothelial layer alphaSG-null, mdx/scid mice, GRMD dogs [59-61]; phase I/II clinical trial ongoing.
Bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) Bone marrow and also from different tissues (adipose, tendon, dental pulp, placenta) multipotent stem cells easy to isolate and expand in culture immunomodulatory properties anti-inflammatory properties low engraftment mdx mice [56-58] tissue engineering applications (biomaterials, bioreactors, bone implants)
Adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) Adipose tissue very easy to isolate and multipotent cells high proliferation in vitro immunosuppressive properties mdx mice, small-scale studies on tissue engineering, as BMSCs (bone implants, biomaterials) [38,39,71]
Table 1: Origin and characteristics of stem cells involved in muscle regeneration.