Seminars in Pediatric Surgery
Volume 18, Issue 4 , Pages 263-273, November 2009

Potential of cell therapy to treat pediatric motility disorders

  • Ryo Hotta

      Affiliations

    • Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
    • Department of Pediatric Surgery, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
    • ,
  • Dipa Natarajan

      Affiliations

    • Division of Molecular Neurobiology, National Institute for Medical Research, London, United Kingdom
    • ,
  • Nikhil Thapar

      Affiliations

    • Gastroenterology and Neural Development Units, UCL Institute of Child Health, London, United Kingdom
    • Corresponding Author InformationAddress reprint requests and correspondence: Nikhil Thapar, Gastroenterology and Neural Development Units, UCL Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital, 30 Guilford Street, London, United Kingdom WC1N 1EH

Gut motility disorders represent a significant challenge in clinical management with current palliative approaches failing to overcome disease and treatment-related morbidity. The recent progress with stem cells to restore missing or defective elements of the gut neuromusculature offers new hope for potential cure. Focusing on enteric neuropathies such as Hirschsprung's disease, the review discusses the progress that has been made in the sourcing of putative stem cells and the studies into their biology and therapeutic potential. It also explores the practical challenges that must be overcome before stem cell-based therapies can be applied in the clinical arena. Although many obstacles remain, the speed of advancement of the enteric stem cell field suggests that such therapies are on the horizon.

Keywords: Gut motility disorders, Enteric neuropathies, Enteric nervous system, Hirschsprung's disease, Stem cells, Cell transplantation

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PII: S1055-8586(09)00046-8

doi:10.1053/j.sempedsurg.2009.07.008

Seminars in Pediatric Surgery
Volume 18, Issue 4 , Pages 263-273, November 2009

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