Stem properties of amniotic membrane-derived cells

New avenues in the general area of research into stem cells have been opened in recent years through the discovery that cells with stem properties can be isolated from the human placenta, which represents an ethically sound, easily pro-cured and plentiful source, and is therefore an attractive alternative to other stem cell sources. In particular, the human amniotic membrane, which already has a long history of use as a surgical material, is also proving to be a valuable reserve of cells for research and development of novel therapeutic approaches for regener-ative/reparative medicine. In this chapter we will describe the two main amniotic membrane-derived cell populations, i.e. epithelial cells and mesenchymal stro-mal/stem cells, and some of their sub-populations, in terms of their stem properties which have been discovered to date. We will explore reasons why these amniotic membrane-derived cell populations cannot be considered “true” stem cells, at least in the classical sense of the term, even though they have some features of progeni-tor-like cells and certainly display some very interesting biological properties both for research purposes and for potential clinical applications. We will also bring in-to discussion the fact that much still remains to be further investigated and even discovered in this evolving research field, although despite this, the very promis-ing results achieved so far are certainly very encouraging as a basis for future studies.