Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells: an overview of their potential in cell-based therapy. (September 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Li, Tan; Xia, Mingxu; Gao, Yuanyuan; Chen, Yanting; Xu, Yun
• Is Part Of: Expert opinion on biological therapy. Volume 15:Number 9(2015:Sep.)
• Page Start: 1293
• Page End: 1306
• Publication Date: 2015-09
• Subjects: Gene therapy -- Periodicals; Protein drugs -- Periodicals; Peptide drugs -- Periodicals; Immunotherapy -- Periodicals; Drug delivery systems -- Periodicals; 615.5
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1471-2598

Abstract

<abstract> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p> <bold> <italic>Introduction:</italic> </bold> Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (HUC-MSCs) are one of the typical adult stem cells; they have superiorities including low immunogenicity, non-invasive harvest procedure, easy expansion <italic>in vitro, </italic> and ethical access compared with stem cells from other sources. Therefore, HUC-MSCs are a promising candidate for cell-based therapy.</p> <p> <bold> <italic>Areas covered:</italic> </bold> Here we reviewed the development of stem cell-based therapy, the manufacturing and banking process of HUC-MSCs, the emerging clinical studies in the field of cancer, central nervous system diseases, liver diseases and graft-versus-host disease, the potential therapeutic mechanisms, as well as challenges of HUC-MSCs in clinical translation.</p> <p> <bold> <italic>Expert opinion:</italic> </bold> HUC-MSCs seem to be an optimal choice for stem cell-based therapy. However, before the cells translate from basic to clinical research, some problems still remain to be solved: i) building regulatory guidelines as well as an efficient and safe manufacturing procedure; ii) establishing donor's genetic testing and long-term closely monitoring system; iii) conducting further clinical trials to determine the optimum and standard dosage, time, route, frequency and many other technical issues of HUC-MSCs transplantation.</p> </abstract>