Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Mesenchymal Stem Cells

 

 

Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSC’s) are adult non embryonic stem cells capable of renewing themselves as well as retaining their population throughout the individual’s lifetime. They can differentiate (create) into most types of cells of the human organism.

 

They play a significant role in:

  • maintaining normal function of the body (e.g. making blood in the bone marrow)
  • repairing the body following injury or disease 

Under the right laboratory conditions (in vitro) these stem cells are able to differentiate into almost any type of cell like:

 

 

 

 

MSCs Differentiating Ability

Applications

Bone/Cartilage

Bone Reconstruction after fracture/injuries

Muscle

Cardiac Muscle Regeneration after Myocardial Infarction 

Nervous tissue

Brain Damage & Neurodegenerative Diseases e.g. Parkinson’s, MS

Pancreatic tissue

Diabetes

Liver Tissue

Liver Failure

 

 

 

 

Other Applications

Examples

Immunoregulatory Functions

Autoimmune disease e.g. Crohn's, MS, SLE (Lupus)

 

Graft vs. Host Disease

Participation in Haematopoiesis

Enhancement of haematopoietic engraftment following transplant

Tissue Engineering

Creation  of tissue grafts for transplantation e.g. heart valves, skin, blood vessels etc.

Gene Therapy

Replacement of faulty genes in inherited conditions e.g. Thalassaemia

 

 

LFLN REF 16/10/13 p. 138

 

 

 

 

Mesenchymal Stem Cells can be found at various sites of the body, mainly in the bone marrow, fat tissue, bones and cartilage, circulating blood, umbilical cord blood, spleen, in the amniotic fluid, muscle tendons, the dermis layer of the skin, the lungs and umbilical cord tissue or Wharton’s Jelly.

 

Animal trials as well as experimental human trials (clinical trials) looking at reconstitution of damaged tissues such as cartilage, bone, tendon, muscle, heart muscle, and spinal cord using Mesenchymal Stem Cells have all shown great promises for human applications.

 

Isolation and laboratory multiplication techniques for Mesenchymal Stem Cells have already been established allowing them to be maintained in cryopreservation for long periods of time, without losing their ability to become all the above cell types.

 

MSC’s are considered to have four potential applications in cell therapy:

  • Differentiate into mature cells that will travel to the injured tissue, giving them a therapeutic potential for Regenerative Medicine
  • They secrete chemical substances and molecules to regulate the body’s immune response
  • Gene therapy, i.e. use of Mesenchymal Stem Cells to carry healthy DNA into diseased cells, thus aiming to cure serious diseases
  • Clinical trials are investigating the potential use of Mesenchymals for cancer therapies

 

LFLN REF 16/10/13 p. 139

 

 

 

 

Umbilical Cord Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells

  • They can differentiate and specialize into various tissues more readily than Mesenchymal Cells from other sources 
  • They have a better ability to multiply:  Their faster doubling time is a common feature of MSCs found in fetal blood, cord blood, and umbilical cord, verifying their primitive nature compared to adult bone marrow stem cells; The time needed for the cell population to double its number during culture is half the time of Bone Marrow or fat tissue Mesenchymal Cells.
  • The collection procedure performed after cord blood collection is simple and painless; in comparison to the invasive and painful procedure of collecting these cells from the Bone Marrow, as the person becomes older the bone marrow cavity fills with yellow fat which makes the collection of these cells even more difficult.  The segmented cord tissue is processed and the cells are extracted, allowing all cells in the tissue to be isolated and used for immediate production of a cellular therapy product or stored for future use.

 Cord tissue Mesenchymal Stem Cells can be cryopreserved. When removed from storage (thawed) such cells can be used to be applied for therapeutic or body repair procedures. The tables below describe potential applications of such cells.

 

In fact umbilical cord tissue cells are already being used complementary to umbilical cord blood transplantations by achieving quicker and better Haematopoietic Cells engraftment in cord blood transplants, therefore resulting in a better outcome of such a therapy.