Clinical application of stem cells (SCs) progresses significantly in the treatment of a large number of diseases, e.g. leukemia, respiratory diseases, kidney disease, cerebral palsy, autism, or autoimmune diseases. Of those, the population, biological phenotypes, and functions of individual SCs are mainly concerned, due to the lack of cell separation and purification processes. The single-cell technology, including microfluidic technology and single-cell genome amplification technology, is widely used to study SCs and gains some recognitions. The present review will address the importance of single-cell technologies in the recognition and heterogeneity of SCs and highlight the significance of current single-cell approaches in the understanding of SC phenotypes. We also discuss the values of single-cell studies to overcome the bottleneck in explore of biological mechanisms and reveal the therapeutic potentials of SCs in diseases, especially tumor-related diseases, as new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.
Keywords: Heterogeneity; Microfluidics; Single-cell technology; Stem cell; Tumor.