Wharton’s jelly mesenchymal stem cells: Future regenerative medicine for clinical applications in mitigation of radiation injury

Table 1 Different types of stem cells and their characteristics

Characteristics	Embryonic stem cells	Induced pluripotent stem cells	Adult stem cells	Ref.
Origin	Inner cell mass of blastocyst	Somatic cells	Postnatal adult tissue	[16]
Potency	Pluripotent	Pluripotent	Multipotent	[17]
Self-renewal	Yes	Yes	Limited	[17]
Teratoma formation	Yes	Yes	No	[18]
Tumorigenesis	Yes	Yes	No	[18]
Immune response	Immuno-privileged MHC-I and II present in low level	Not immuno-privileged MHC-I and II present in normal level	MSCs are immuno-privileged and immunosuppressive in nature	[18,19,20,21,22]
Ethical issue	Serious ethical issue	No ethical issue	No ethical issue	[21]

MHC: Major histocompatibility class; MSC: Mesenchymal stem cell.