Title:The Roles of Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Tissue Repair and Disease Modification
Volume: 9
Issue: 5
Author(s): Tianyi Wu, Yang Liu, Bin Wang and Gang Li
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Fate, immunomodulation, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), secretive factors, transplantation.
Abstract: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multi-potent cells which have been widely used for tissue regeneration
and immunomodulation. The infusion of autologous and allogenic MSCs has been proved to be safe and effective in tissue
repair and disease modulation. The inherent homing ability of MSCs ensures the transplanted cells migrating into the
damaged tissue areas, but only a small percentage of the transplanted (allogenic) MSCs survive for long. However, the
beneficial effects of MSCs transplantation could be noted within 1-2 days that are unlikely due to their proliferation and
differentiation. The regulatory roles of MSCs in tissue repair are rather more important than their direct involvement of
repair processes. The most important effect of transplanted MSCs is their immunomodulation function through crosstalk
with the immune cells or the paracrine actions. The active factor secreted by MSCs may vary in the different disease conditions
or tissue niches, and are under dynamic changes in various local environments. To understand and define the
MSCs secretion factors in various disease settings could be a future research direction, and the findings could lead to
potential new MSCs-based therapeutic products.