Directions for Enhancement of the Therapeutic Efficacy of Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Different Neurodegenerative and Cardiovascular Diseases: Current Status and Future Perspectives

Abstract

: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have shown promising therapeutic effects in a wide variety of medical conditions including neurodegenerative disorders and cardiovascular diseases. Although preliminary research has emphasized the ability of MSCs to engraft at sites of injury, several studies have revealed that MSCs mediate their effects through release of various paracrine factors, and through their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, and anti-apoptotic effects. However, the clinical implications of MSCs application are limited due to their low survival rate in conditions of inflammation, oxidative stress, and nutrient restriction in damaged areas. Furthermore, the function of isolated MSCs is usually affected by the patient’s health. Therefore, it is necessary to develop new methods to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of MSCs under pathophysiological conditions. This review provides an overview of the general properties of MSCs, their therapeutic potential in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and Huntington disease, as well as cardiovascular diseases such as myocardial infarction, diabetic cardiomyopathy, and dilated cardiomyopathy, and their related mechanisms. In addition, this review also discusses potential problems and side effects, as well as current and future directions for improvement of MSCs therapy and their implications and applications.

Stem Cell-based Therapeutic and Diagnostic Approaches in Alzheimer's Disease

“…, gene engineering, prearranging by different factors, using extracellular vesicles) brought a great deal of interest due to the wide range of changing possibilities of these cells [ 86 ]. Next to all its advantages, MSC therapy certainly has its disadvantages, including limited cell survival, risk of malignant transformation, and low neuronal differentiation rates [ 89 , 97 ].…”

Cardiac Tissue Engineering for the Treatment of Myocardial Infarction

“…In terms of their differentiation capabilities, stem cells can be divided into four main types: totipotent stem cells, PSCs, multipotent stem cells, and unipotent stem cells [12]. The major progenitor/stem cells used in the field of cellular cardiomyoplasty are myoblasts [13][14][15], mesenchymal stem cells [16][17][18], ESCs [19,20], and iPSCs [21][22][23]. The advantages and disadvantages of each cell type are summarized in Table 1.…”