Mesenchymal Stem Cells: A new trend in cell therapy
Since approximately ten years, mesenchymal (MSC) stem cells have been used as the main stem cells in cell therapy. MSCs are showing promise for the treatment of many diseases. These include tissue injury and immune disorders. This review summarizes the latest opinions on MSC administration methods, timing, and cell sources in clinical applications. It also provides an overview of important mechanisms in MSC-mediated therapy. MSCs have been proven to be effective and safe for cell therapies, but there are still many challenges to overcome before they can be widely used in clinics.
Keywords: mesenchymal cells, cell therapy. degenerative diseases, immune disorders, graft versus host disease, immunomodulation.
Stem cells have the capacity to regenerate themselves over a long period of time without significant changes in general properties. Under certain experimental or physiological conditions, they can become specialized cells. Cell therapy is one subtype of regenerative medicines. Cell therapy using stem cells is the introduction of stem cells to tissue in order to treat disease, with or without gene therapy. Hematopoietic Stem Cells (HSCs), which are derived from hematopoietic tissue, have been used widely for allogeneic cells therapy. The isolation of pluripotent stem cells (ES) from the inner mass of embryonic early stages has been a valuable tool in biological research. ES cells are capable of giving rise to all cell types and represent the most promising cells in regenerative medicine.
Source:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4002895/
