The title "Stem Cells from Cord Blood, In Utero Stem Cell Develop ment, and Transplantation-Inclusive Gene Therapy" suggests that more than one topic is combined in one workshop. Indeed, at first glance the recovery of stem cells from cord blood has to be seen as separate from the attempts to achieve effective in utero therapy by stem cell trans plantation, because the first issue deals with an innovative stem cell source as an alternative to bone marrow, which is already spreading rapidly in medical practice, whereas the second topic is still strictly ex perimental and only investigated in medical centers with the appropri ate background. It is, however, not only justified, but helpful to com bine the two topics in one workshop and consequently to cover them in the same volume of the Ernst Schering Research Foundation Work shop series, because they are intimately related and both based on the new insights into the biology of stem cells. Professor Werner Arber, the Nobel Laureate from the University of Basel, pointed out in his In- Professor Dr. W. Holzgreve VI Preface The participants of the workshop troductory Lecture that our understanding of hematopoietic stem cells as descendents of totipotent cells and our current approaches to using them in post-and prenatal therapy have been furthered significantly by genetic engineering technologies which are "artificial contributions to the process of biologic evolution".

Klappentext

This is the first book which deals in a comprehensive manner with two different recent developments with hematopoietic stem cells. The first is their retrieval from cord blood as an alternative to bone marrow. Since this approach was first suggested 10 years ago, there has been worldwide activity to establish cord blood banks, and more than 10 000 samples have been entered and 1000 transplanted in one center alone. The second application of hematopoietic stem cells is therapy in utero, e.g., of inborn errors of metabolism The first successful treatment of effective severe combined immunodeficiency in utero have been reported, though many problems remain to be solved.

Inhalt
1 Plasticity of Stem Cells.- 2 Lentiviral Vectors for the Genetic Modification of Hematopoietic Stem Cells.- 3 Origin and Developmental Plasticity of Hematopoietic Stem Cells.- 4 The New York Blood Center's Placental/Umbilical Cord Blood Program. Experience with a 'New' Source of Hematopoietic Stem Cells for Transplantation.- 5 Chances and Limits of Cord Blood Transplantation.- 6 Legal and Ethical Issues Involved in Cord Blood Transplantations and Banking.- 7 Fetal Somatic Gene Therapy A Preventive Approach to the Treatment of Genetic Disease: The Case for.- 8 Prenatal Transplantation of Hematopoietic Stem Cells: Overview.- 9 Fetal Hematopoietic Stem Cells: In Vitro Expansion and Transduction Using Lentiviral Vectors.- 10 Tolerance Induction Post In Utero Stem Cell Transplantation.- 11 Fetal Hematopoiesis During First and Second Trimester of Pregnancy: Relevance for In Utero Stem Cell Transplantation.- 12 Tolerance Induction Following In Utero Stem Cell Transplantation.- 13 In Utero Stem Cell Transplantations in Humans.- Previous Volumes Published in this Series.