Review Article
Stem Cells as New Agents for the Treatment of Infertility: Current and Future Perspectives and Challenges
Table 2
Potential advantages and disadvantages of stem cells in regenerative medicine.
| Stem cells | Advantages | Disadvantages |
| ESCs | Pluripotent; high telomerase activity | Ethical concerns; malignant potential; difficult to control; may require many steps to differentiate into desired cell type; immune rejection |
| MSCs | No ethical or moral concerns; low malignant potential; avoiding allogeneic immune rejection | Limited flexibility; multipotent; difficulty to be maintained in cell culture for long periods |
| Stem cell from extraembryonic tissues | No ethical or moral concerns; reducing risk of tumorigenicity | Limited flexibility; multipotent |
| iPSCs | No ethical or moral concerns; patient-specific cells | Use of viral vectors to introduce genes; malignant potential |
| Spermatogonial stem cells | No ethical or moral concerns | Relatively small numbers in testis; difficulty to be maintained in cultures; immune rejection |
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