1st ES Cell Clinical Trial [in Japan] Aims to Aid Babies with Weak Lives

May 3, 2018

(Yomiuri Shimbun) – The nation’s first clinical trial to transplant embryonic stem (ES) cells into a patient began at the National Center for Child Health and Development (NCCHD) in Tokyo on April 30. ES cells, derived from early-stage embryos, are a type of pluripotent stem cells that can differentiate into all cell types. The trial will be conducted on babies with a serious liver disease, and the first transplant of ES cells will be conducted as early as this autumn.