Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Mar 26, 2016; 8(3): 73-87
Published online Mar 26, 2016. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v8.i3.73
Homing and migration of mesenchymal stromal cells: How to improve the efficacy of cell therapy?
Ann De Becker, Ivan Van Riet
Ann De Becker, Ivan Van Riet, Department Clinical Hematology-Stem Cell Laboratory, Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), 1090 Jette, Belgium
Author contributions: Both authors contributed equally to the conception of the paper, the literature review and analysis, and drafting, and to critically revising and editing the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no potential conflicts of interest, as there was no financial support for this article.
Open-Access: 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/
Correspondence to: Ivan Van Riet, MSc, PhD, Department Clinical Hematology-Stem Cell Laboratory, Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Laarbeeklaan 101, 1090 Jette, Belgium. ivan.vanriet@uzbrussel.be
Telephone: +32-2-4776211 Fax: +32-2-4776210
Received: August 29, 2015
Peer-review started: September 6, 2015
First decision: November 11, 2015
Revised: December 24, 2015
Accepted: January 27, 2016
Article in press: January 29, 2016
Published online: March 26, 2016
Processing time: 205 Days and 2.2 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are currently under investigation for use in a variety of clinical applications. In most studies, MSCs are administered systemically. This requires efficient homing and migration of the MSCs to a target tissue. However, the homing mechanisms of MSCs are not completely understood. Moreover, the in vivo homing and migration of MSCs does not appear to be highly efficient. Therefore, different methods have been investigated to improve homing. Here, we will review the current knowledge of bone marrow homing of MSCs, as well as the different strategies that might improve the homing capacity of these stem cells.