Mesenchymal Stem Cells: A Trump Card for the Treatment of Diabetes?

Abstract

The advent of the new revolutionary approach based on regenerative medicine is progressively reshaping the therapeutic scenario of many different diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases and immune diseases, with encouraging results. During the last 10 years, many studies have also proposed the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), adult stem cells with several interesting properties already used in different experimental models, for the treatment of diabetes, however, reporting conflicting outcomes. These reasons have given rise to a question: are these cells a real trump card for the biomedical field? Are they really able to outclass the traditional therapies, or at least able to give an advantage over them? In this review, we will discuss the most promising results obtained with MSCs for the treatment of diabetes and its complications, we will compare the different therapeutic treatments applied as well as the most likely mechanisms of action, and overall we will give an in-depth overview of the pros and the cons of the use of MSCs for the therapy of both type-1 and type-2 diabetes.

Mesenchymal stem/stromal cell-based therapy: mechanism, systemic safety and biodistribution for precision clinical applications

“…The capability of MSCs for immunomodulation has made them a useful treatment approach for inflammatory disorders such as multiple sclerosis [ 65 ], Crohn’s disease [ 66 ], GVHD [ 67 ], systemic lupus erythematosus [ 67 ], and type I diabetes [ 68 ]. Immunomodulation is dependent on crosstalk between MSCs and the immune microenvironment of the target tissue.…”

Role of Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cells in Modulating Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury: Current State of the Art and Future Perspectives

“…Across the last decade, it has been shown that the treatment with MSCs was able to induce islet regeneration, increase islet function, and inhibit immune system reactions in various animal models of T1D [ 131 ]. Kasahara et al found that AdMSCs-CM administered through a preservation solution was able to restore rat islets to the condition they were in before transport, culture, and transplantation [ 132 ].…”