Cell replacement therapy: looking into the researchers tool box

Until recently, tissue degeneration, particularly neuronal degeneration, was thought to be an intractable problem. Over the past 20 years, however, the exponential increase in our understanding of the molecular basis of brain development and disease together with the identification of stem cells (SCs) in the adult brain has increased the feasibility of developing novel therapeutic strategies to promote tissue regeneration by exploiting cellular, pharmacological, genetic and biomaterial based technologies.