Stem cell research tools in human metabolic disorders: An overview

Metabolic disorders are very common in the population worldwide and are among the diseases with the highest health utilization and costs per person. Despite the ongoing efforts to de-velop new treatments, currently, for many of these disorders, there are no approved therapies, re-sulting in a huge economic hit and tension for society. In this review, we recapitulate the recent advancements in stem cell (gene) therapy as potential tools for the long-term treatment of both inherited (lysosomal storage diseases) and acquired (diabetes mellitus, obesity) metabolic disorders, focusing on the main promising results observed in human patients and discussing the critical hur-dles preventing the definitive jump of this approach from the bench to the clinic.