Human menstrual blood: a renewable and sustainable source of stem cells for regenerative medicine

Abstract

Stem cells (SCs) play an important role in autologous and even allogenic applications. Menstrual blood discharge has been identified as a valuable source of SCs which are referred to as menstrual blood-derived stem cells (MenSCs). Compared to SCs from bone marrow and adipose tissues, MenSCs come from body discharge and obtaining them is non-invasive to the body, they are easy to collect, and there are no ethical concerns. There is, hence, a growing interest in the functions of MenSCs and their potential applications in regenerative medicine. This review presents recent progress in research into MenSCs and their potential application. Clinical indications of using MenSCs for various regenerative medicine applications are emphasized, and future research is recommended to accelerate clinical applications of MenSCs.

Menstrual blood-derived stem cells: toward therapeutic mechanisms, novel strategies, and future perspectives in the treatment of diseases

“…Therefore, MenSCs should not be considered a kind of endometrial stem cells as the two are different but related cell types. According to immunophenotype analysis, MenSCs do not express hematopoietic stem cell markers (including CD19, CD 34, CD45, and CD133) and HLA-DR, and they express classical MSC markers (such as CD29, CD73, CD90, and CD105) and some other surface molecules (such as CD9, CD44, CD166, and HLA-ABC) [19, 20]. Interestingly, MenSCs specifically possess the embryonic stem cells marker, octamer binding transcription factor 4 (OCT-4) [22].…”

“…Tan et al reported that autologous transplantation of MenSCs increased the thickness of the endometrium in five women suffering with severe Asherman’s syndrome (AS) [89]. Currently, MenSCs have demonstrated valuable effectiveness in treating a variety of diseases, including stroke, T1DM, acute and chronic liver diseases, acute lung injury, DMD, epithelial ovarian cancer, POF, AS, CRC, Alzheimer’s disease, cardiac diseases, cutaneous wounds, endometriosis, and neurodegenerative diseases [17, 20, 34]. No side effects have been reported with regard to production of tumor post MenSC transplant [16, 22].…”

Fertility Preservation: The Challenge of Freezing and Transplanting Ovarian Tissue

“…Another strategy that has been investigated to boost ovarian function in the presence of a diminished ovarian reserve is use of numerous adult stem cell lines. Improved follicle outcomes in murine models with a decreased ovarian reserve were observed after infusion of: (i) mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from the umbilical cord or from bone marrow [55][56][57][58][59][60][61], (ii) amniotic endothelial cells [62,63], (iii) menstrual blood-derived endometrial cells [64,65], and (iv) adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ASCs) [66,67]. Elevated hormone levels and higher numbers of developing follicles add weight to the hypothesis of a beneficial impact of adult stem cells on a limited follicle pool.…”

Conditioned medium from healthy women's endometrial stem cells improve inflammatory and stemness- expression genes in endometriosis women

“…Some genes are differentially expressed in MenSCs from endometriosis patients which can be the leading reasons for the disease complications. These gene expression differences can help to diagnosis and treatment of endometriosis [5]. In ammatory genes are mostly overexpressed in these patients which gradually leads to chronic in ammation and immune responses in lesion sites and the whole pelvic cavity [6].…”