Substantial Overview on Mesenchymal Stem Cell Biological and Physical Properties as an Opportunity in Translational Medicine

Abstract

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have piqued worldwide interest for their extensive potential to treat a large array of clinical indications, their unique and controversial immunogenic and immune modulatory properties allowing ample discussions and debates for their possible applications. Emerging data demonstrating that the interaction of biomaterials and physical cues with MSC can guide their differentiation into specific cell lineages also provide new interesting insights for further MSC manipulation in different clinical applications. Moreover, recent discoveries of some regulatory molecules and signaling pathways in MSC niche that may regulate cell fate to distinct lineage herald breakthroughs in regenerative medicine. Although the advancement and success in the MSC field had led to an enormous increase in the amount of ongoing clinical trials, we still lack defined clinical therapeutic protocols. This review will explore the exciting opportunities offered by human and animal MSC, describing relevant biological properties of these cells in the light of the novel emerging evidence mentioned above while addressing the limitations and challenges MSC are still facing.

A Rapid and Highly Predictive in vitro Screening Platform for Osteogenic Natural Compounds Using Human Runx2 Transcriptional Activity in Mesenchymal Stem Cells

“…Moreover, classical osteogenesis assays are time-consuming, with both in vitro and in vivo functional assays requiring several weeks of time to complete. In addition, all these assays are performed with primary cells whether it be osteoblasts, pre-osteoblasts, or mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) which are the progenitors of osteogenic cells ( Zheng et al, 2018 , 2019 ; Abdelrazik et al, 2019 ; Lavrentieva et al, 2020 ), all which require primary isolation and can lose osteogenic capacity when senescent after prolonged in vitro passaging ( Moerman et al, 2004 ; Ho et al, 2013 ; Liu et al, 2020 ). Thus, development of a robust and rapid screening platform for selection of phytoestrogens and other plant-based compounds with strong osteogenic agonistic properties is sorely needed.…”

Therapeutic Advances of Stem Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicles in Regenerative Medicine

“…Stem cells can differentiate into many types of cells and they can substitute for injured tissues and fulfill the repair process through the paracrine mechanism at the injury location. Stem cells have been used successfully in the treatment of hematological malignancies, graft-versus-host disease, acute thrombocytopenia, and autoimmune diseases in several experimental in vivo studies [4,5]. However, large-scale production,…”

Role of Aquaporins in the Physiological Functions of Mesenchymal Stem Cells

“…Specific features of MSCs rely on their self-renewal ability, low immunogenicity, and the ability to migrate, proliferate, and differentiate in different cell types [ 9 , 10 ]. Notably, the biological activities associated with MSCs migration and proliferation are of particular importance because they are involved in tissue regeneration.…”