Choudhery MS. Strategies to improve regenerative potential of mesenchymal stem cells. World J Stem Cells 2021; 13(12): 1845-1862 [PMID: 35069986 DOI: 10.4252/wjsc.v13.i12.1845]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Mahmood S Choudhery, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology, University of Health Sciences, Khayaban-e-Jamia Punjab, Lahore 54600, Punjab, Pakistan. ms20031@yahoo.com
Research Domain of This Article
Medicine, Research & Experimental
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Stem Cells. Dec 26, 2021; 13(12): 1845-1862 Published online Dec 26, 2021. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v13.i12.1845
Strategies to improve regenerative potential of mesenchymal stem cells
Mahmood S Choudhery
Mahmood S Choudhery, Department of Biomedical Sciences, King Edward Medical University, Lahore 54000, Punjab, Pakistan
Mahmood S Choudhery, Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology, University of Health Sciences, Lahore 54600, Punjab, Pakistan
Author contributions: Choudhery MS has designed and written the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author declares no conflict of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Mahmood S Choudhery, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology, University of Health Sciences, Khayaban-e-Jamia Punjab, Lahore 54600, Punjab, Pakistan. ms20031@yahoo.com
Received: April 18, 2021 Peer-review started: April 18, 2021 First decision: July 18, 2021 Revised: July 31, 2021 Accepted: December 10, 2021 Article in press: December 10, 2021 Published online: December 26, 2021 Processing time: 250 Days and 19.4 Hours
Abstract
In the last few decades, stem cell-based therapies have gained attention worldwide for various diseases and disorders. Adult stem cells, particularly mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), are preferred due to their significant regenerative potential in cellular therapies and are currently involved in hundreds of clinical trials. Although MSCs have high self-renewal as well as differentiation potential, such abilities are compromised with “advanced age” and “disease status” of the donor. Similarly, cell-based therapies require high cell number for clinical applications that often require in vitro expansion of cells. It is pertinent to note that aged individuals are the main segment of population for stem cell-based therapies, however; autologous use of stem cells for such patients (aged and diseased) does not seem to give optimal results due to their compromised potential. In vitro expansion to obtain large numbers of cells also negatively affects the regenerative potential of MSCs. It is therefore essential to improve the regenerative potential of stem cells compromised due to “in vitro expansion”, “donor age” and “donor disease status” for their successful autologous use. The current review has been organized to address the age and disease depleted function of resident adult stem cells, and the strategies to improve their potential. To combat the problem of decline in the regenerative potential of cells, this review focuses on the strategies that manipulate the cell environment such as hypoxia, heat shock, caloric restriction and preconditioning with different factors.
Core Tip: Stem cell-based therapies can treat various diseases and disorders. Mesenchymal stem cells have high self-renewal as well as differentiation potential, however; their potential for cell-based therapies is severely compromised with donor age, disease status and extensive in vitro expansion. Thus autologous use of stem cells isolated from unhealthy, older donors does not seem to give optimal results. It is therefore essential to improve the negative effects of age and disease on resident adult stem cells before clinical use. We herein discuss the strategies such as hypoxia, heat shock, caloric restriction and preconditioning with different factors to enhance the stem cell function.
