Progress in the study on osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation of embryonic stem cells / 国际生物医学工程杂志

ABSTRACT

One of the focuses in bone and cartilage tissue engineering research is to find suitable seed cells. Embryonic stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of blastocysts possess unique characteristics such as unlimit- ed capacity of proliferation and the potential to differentiate into diverse cell types (pluripotentiality), which make them a promising cell source for tissue engineering. In this paper, the progress in the study on embryonic stem cell differentiating directly into osteoblasts and chondrocytes is introduced. The prospects and difficulties of using em- bryonic stem cells as seed cells for tissue engineering are also discussed.