Regulating the fate of stem cells for regenerating the intervertebral disc degeneration

Table 2 Variation in properties of different sources of stem cell types

Properties	MSCs	ESCs	iPSCs
Sources	Perinatal and adult tissues	Embryo at blastocyst stage	Genetically reprogrammed specialized cells
Plasticity	Multipotent	Pluripotent	Pluripotent
Teratoma formation	No	Yes	Yes
Growth	Limited	High	High
Ethical concerns	No	Yes	No
Immune rejection	No	Yes	No
Cell transplantation	Autologous and allogenic	Allogenic	Autologous
Clinical trials in human patients	Ongoing	Limited	In vitro/in vivo only
Use in genetic disorder	Deficient (Carry mutated gene)	Superior	Deficient (Carry mutated gene)
Ease of isolation	Yes	No	No

MSCs: Mesenchymal stem cells; ESCs: Embryonic stem cells; iPSCs: Induced pluripotent stem cells.