Embryonic stem cells (ESC) are a unique tool in regenerative medicine, with the potential for treating Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injury, amy-otrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Huntington's disease and a variety of other neurological conditions.Recent studies describe the differentiation of embryonic stem cells into relevant neural cell types and preliminary testing of these cells in animal models of neurodegenerative diseases. Academic and commercial laboratories are actively investigating stem cells derived from embryonic, foetal and adult sources to explore their therapeutic value in a number of disease settings. The pluripotency and apparent immortality of embryonic stem cells, in particular, offer the potential for deriving many different cell types from a single, well-characterised cell line [Figure 1]. As discussed in this review, neurodegenerative conditions provide a good illustration of our initial attempts to apply this unique technology in practice.
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