Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Jan 26, 2022; 14(1): 117-141
Published online Jan 26, 2022. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v14.i1.117
Stem cell therapy applied for digestive anastomosis: Current state and future perspectives
Jacobo Trébol, Tihomir Georgiev-Hristov, Isabel Pascual-Miguelañez, Hector Guadalajara, Mariano García-Arranz, Damian García-Olmo
Jacobo Trébol, Servicio de Cirugía General y del Aparato Digestivo, Complejo Asistencial Universitario de Salamanca, Salamanca 37007, Spain
Jacobo Trébol, Departamento de Anatomía e Histología Humanas, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca 37007, Spain
Tihomir Georgiev-Hristov, Servicio de Cirugía General y del Aparato Digestivo, Hospital General Universitario de Villalba, Madrid 28400, Spain
Isabel Pascual-Miguelañez, Servicio de Cirugía General y del Aparato Digestivo, Hospital Universitario La Paz, Madrid 28046, Spain
Hector Guadalajara, Servicio de Cirugía General y del Aparato Digestivo, Hospital Universitario Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Madrid 28040, Spain
Mariano García-Arranz, Grupo de Investigación en Nuevas Terapias, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria-Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Madrid 28040, Spain
Mariano García-Arranz, Damian García-Olmo, Departamento de Cirugía, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid 28029, Spain
Damian García-Olmo, Servicio de Cirugía General y del Aparato Digestivo, Hospital Universitario Fundación Jiménez Díaz y Grupo Quiron-Salud Madrid, Madrid 28040, Spain
Author contributions: All authors equally contributed to this paper with drafting and critical revision. Trebol J and Georgiev-Hristov T performed literature review and analysis; Georgiev-Hristov T, Pascual I and Guadalajara H revised language editing; Trebol J wrote the paper; all authors reviewed the paper and gave their final approval of manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: García-Olmo D is a member of the Advisory Board of Tigenix S.A.U. García-Olmo D and García-Arranz M co-hold patent rights for patents related to this study entitled Biomaterial for suture/suturing (WO2006035083A1), Identification and isolation of multipotent cells from non-osteochondral mesenchymal tissue (WO2006037649A1) and about Use of adipose tissue-derived stromal stem cells in treating fistula (WO2006136244A2). García-Olmo D and García-Arranz M are shareholders of Biosurgery, an educational company providing services to Takeda. Other authors disclosed no potential conflicts of interest.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement.
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: Jacobo Trébol, MD, PhD, Adjunct Professor, Surgeon, Surgical Oncologist, Servicio de Cirugía General y del Aparato Digestivo, Complejo Asistencial Universitario de Salamanca, Paseo de San Vicente, No. 58-182, Salamanca 37007, Spain. jtrebol@saludcastillayleon.es
Received: March 24, 2021
Peer-review started: March 24, 2021
First decision: June 5, 2021
Revised: June 21, 2021
Accepted: December 31, 2021
Article in press: December 31, 2021
Published online: January 26, 2022
Processing time: 301 Days and 18 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Digestive anastomoses leakages reflect impaired healing, are frequent and are associated with severe consequences. Despite technical and technological advancements, leakage rates have remained stable in the last decades. Stem cells (SCs) could improve anastomotic healing, as they have in other altered healing conditions. We present a descriptive review of the published literature about digestive anastomoses and sutures and SCs, analyzing the results and discussing their limitations and concerns. Eighteen preclinical studies have confirmed the feasibility and safety and have shown interesting results, however, with some limitations and high heterogenicity. Additional studies and better models are needed prior to human testing.