From Trials to Therapeutics: are Mesenchymal Stem Cells Promising in Cellular Therapy?

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are today, the most favoured cellular candidates for regenerative therapeutics. Though discovered early in the 1960s, only recent decades have witnessed extensive research involving MSCs. MSCs, termed as multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells in 2006, by the International Society of Cellular Therapy have gained greater acceptance in view of their ubiquitous presence in tissues, exemption from ethical concerns, clonogenic potential, trilineage differentiation, versatile plasticity and ability to orchestrate host tissue interactions. Biological properties of MSCs that contribute to therapeutic efficiency include facilitating secretion of bioactive factors, induction of cellular recruitment and retention of progenitor faculties. Researchers, however continue to be intrigued by variability in the in vivo identity of MSCs which is influenced by various factors that include tissue of origin, age of MSCs, number of isolates and isolation efficiency, associated metabolic disorders, foetal or adult status, gene expression, protein and transcription factors and allogenic or autologous extract . Although early results in clinical studies are promising, transformation of MSCs into a mature clinically viable option would mean a patient wait.