Table 1.
Summary of the History of Stem Cell Research.
| Year | Research Performed | References |
|---|---|---|
| 1878 | First report of endeavors to fertilize mammalian eggs outside the body is published. | Trounson et al (2000) |
| 1959 | First report on animals produced through IVF is published. | Trounson et al (2000) |
| 1960 | Studies of teratocarcinomas in the testes of several inbred strains of mice indicate that the teratocarcinomas originated from EGCs. | Friedrich et al (1983), Kleinsmith and Pierce (1964)3 |
| 1968 | The first human egg in vitro fertilization is performed. | Trounson et al (2000) |
| 1970 | Cultured SCs are explored as models of embryonic development, although their complement of chromosomes is abnormal. | Martin (1980)5 |
| 1978 | Louise Brown, the first IVF baby, is born. | Trounson et al (2000) |
| 1980 | Australia’s first IVF baby, Candace Reed, is born in Melbourne. | Trounson et al (2000) |
| 1981 | Evans and colleagues derive mouse cells (ESCs) from the inner cell mass of blastocysts and develop culture conditions for growing pluripotent mouse ESCs in vitro; they find that infusing the ESCs into mice induced the formation of teratomas. The first IVF baby in the United States, Elizabeth Carr, is born. | Evans and Kaufman (1981),6 Martin (1981),7 Trounson et al (2000) |
| 1984-1988 | Andrews and coworkers develop pluripotent cells (ECCs) from the Tera-2 human testicular teratocarcinoma cell line. Thus, the teratoma cells exposed to retinoic acid differentiate into neuron-like cells and other cell types. | Andrews (1988), Thompson et al (1984) |
| 1989 | Pera and coworkers isolate and characterize multipotent clones of human embryonal carcinoma cells, which yield tissues of all 3 primary germ layers. | Pera et al (1989)8 |
| 1994 | Human blastocysts are established for reproductive purposes using IVF and are donated by patients for research. The inner cell mass is isolated and cultured. | Bongso et al (1994)9 |
| 1995-1996 | Nonhuman primate ESCs are derived and maintained in vitro; these cells were first isolated from the inner cell mass of rhesus monkeys and then from that of marmosets. The primate ESCs resemble human ECCs, indicating that it should be possible to derive and maintain human ESCs in vitro. | Thompson et al (1995, 1996) |
| 1998 | Thompson and coworkers acquire and maintain human ESCs from the inner cell mass of human blastocysts that were produced through in vitro fertilization and were donated for research purposes. Gearhart and colleagues derived human embryonic germ (EG) cells from the gonadal ridge and mesenchymal tissue of fetal material originating from abortions at 5 to 9 weeks of gestation. | Thompson et al (1998), Sharp et al (2000) |
| 2000 | Scientists in Singapore and Australia derive human ES cells from the inner cell mass of blastocysts donated by couples undergoing treatment for infertility. The ES cells proliferate for extended periods in vitro, maintain normal karyotypes, differentiate into somatic cell lineages derived from all 3 primary germ layers, and form teratomas when injected into immunodeficient mice. | Pera et al (1989)8 |
| 2001 | Human ES cell lines are shared and new lines are derived in vitro. Many methods are aimed at generating human tissues for transplantation purposes. |
Abbreviations: ECCs, embryonal carcinoma cells; EGCs, embryonic germ cells; ESCs, embryonic stem cells; IVF, in vitro fertilization; SC, stem cell.