Lluís Orozco Delclos, Robert Soler Rich, Xavier Peirau Teres
Clearly, 'stem cells' do not need to be saved; they have been directing the development of animal organisms since the beginning of time and we assume that they will continue to do so indefinitely. From the blastocyst, the umbilical cord, the adipose tissue and the bone marrow, to cite just a few examples, stem cells will continue to carry out with a watchmaker's precision the roles for which they are programmed. It is up to scientists to learn to manage them and appropriately take advantage of their pluripotent nature. What needs to be saved is the meaning of the grammatical term 'stem cells', because its growing inappropriate use is being observed in both the media and the therapeutic setting. Sometimes, the dangerous 'error' ends up infiltrating scientific journals, conferences and even clinical trial database records.
