Sullivan Stephen, Eggan Kevin
Stowers Medical Institute, Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Harvard University, 7 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Stem Cell Rev. 2006;2(4):341-9. doi: 10.1007/BF02698061.
As donor organs and tissues for transplantation medicine are scarce, alternative methods for replacing damaged cells or restoring organ function are highly needed. Here, we consider the therapeutic potential of cell fusion. After highlighting the various contexts in which cells are known to fuse during mammalian development, we discuss the implications of the observation that cell fusion can occur with restorative effects following tissue damage or cell transplantation. There are still, however, many challenges facing those who wish to implement cell fusion as a therapeutic tool. These include identifying the best cells to use for reparative fusion, determining the best route of introducing these cells into the desired tissue, discovering methods to increase the incidence of cell fusion, and ensuring the functionality of the resulting fusion products. If these difficulties can be overcome, cell fusion might have therapeutic potential as highlighted by several recent transplantation studies.
由于用于移植医学的供体器官和组织稀缺，因此迫切需要替代方法来替换受损细胞或恢复器官功能。在此，我们考虑细胞融合的治疗潜力。在强调了哺乳动物发育过程中已知细胞会发生融合的各种情况之后，我们讨论了细胞融合在组织损伤或细胞移植后可产生修复作用这一观察结果的意义。然而，对于那些希望将细胞融合作为一种治疗工具的人来说，仍然面临许多挑战。这些挑战包括确定用于修复性融合的最佳细胞、确定将这些细胞引入目标组织的最佳途径、发现提高细胞融合发生率的方法以及确保所得融合产物的功能。如果能够克服这些困难，细胞融合可能具有治疗潜力，最近的几项移植研究已突出了这一点。
