The latest to extol their benefits is the actor John Cleese, who suggests that stem cells could hold the secret to eternal youth - or, at least, buy him "a few extra years".
In an interview with Saga magazine, the 84-year-old Python revealed he had been paying a private Swiss clinic £17,000 every 12 to 18 months for the past two decades for stem cell therapy, which he credits for looking "not bad" for his age.
So is Cleese making a sound investment? Stem cells have remarkable medical potential. They are the body's master cells that, in the embryo, go on to produce every cell type in the body. Even in adulthood our bodies retain reserves of less versatile stem cells that mobilise to repair injuries and regenerate skin and other tissues.
Stem cell transplants have long been used in treating leukaemia and there are a wealth of ground-breaking trials that use stem cells to treat genetic skin disorders, Parkinson's disease and epilepsy.
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