Читать книгу The SAGE Encyclopedia of Stem Cell Research - Группа авторов - Страница 150

Before the turn of the 17th century, regeneration of human cells was considered a myth, a legend sired from Greek mythology of the titan Prometheus. The Greek god Zeus punished Prometheus by chaining him to a rock while an eagle ate at his liver every day, only to have it regenerate due to his immortality.

In the late 1800s the term, stem cell appeared in the scientific literature of the notable biologist Ernst Haeckel, but it wasn’t until the Russian-American scientist Alexander A. Maximow that the theory of hematopoietic cells came forward. The theory stated all blood cells have a single precursor cell, and hence are multipotent with the ability to further differentiate.

Blood cells, one of the most relentless cells of the adult human body, have an enormous regenerative capacity. They originate from hematopoietic stem cells. These were first discovered in experiments where mice were lethally irradiated and these stem cells regenerated the hematopoietic system. From these experiments, human trials showed that such stem cells exist in the body and are responsible for the continuous replenishment of adult blood cells.