Menstrual blood-derived stem cells: toward therapeutic mechanisms, novel strategies, and future perspectives in the treatment of diseases

Abstract

Menstrual blood-derived stem cells (MenSCs) have great potential in the treatment of various diseases. As a novel type of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), MenSCs have attracted more interest due to their therapeutic effects in both animal models and clinical trials. Here, we described the differentiation, immunomodulation, paracrine, homing, and engraftment mechanisms of MenSCs. These include differentiation into targeting cells, immunomodulation with various immune cells, the paracrine effect on secreting cytokines, and homing and engraftment into injured sites. To better conduct MenSC-based therapy, some novel hotspots were proposed such as CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)/cas9-mediated gene modification, exosomes for cell-free therapy, single-cell RNA sequence for precision medicine, engineered MenSC-based therapy for the delivery platform, and stem cell niches for improving microenvironment. Subsequently, current challenges were elaborated on, with regard to age of donor, dose of MenSCs, transplantation route, and monitoring time. The management of clinical research with respect to MenSC-based therapy in diseases will become more normative and strict. Thus, a more comprehensive horizon should be considered that includes a combination of traditional solutions and novel strategies. In summary, MenSC-based treatment has a great potential in treating diseases through diverse strategies, and more therapeutic mechanisms and novel strategies need to be elucidated for future regenerative medicine and clinical applications.

The role of mesenchymal stromal cells in immune modulation of COVID-19: focus on cytokine storm

“…Wilson et al [71] have recently found that the administration of allogeneic MSCs for nine patients with ARDS did not lead to any particular adverse events such as cardiac arrhythmia, hypoxemia, and ventricular tachycardia. MSCs taken from menstrual blood have recently become attractive because of easy access, high rate of proliferation, and a non-invasive procedure lacking ethical issues [77][78][79]. Chen et al argue that MSCs are capable of reducing inflammatory effects and avoiding cytokine storm.…”

Clinical study using mesenchymal stem cells for the treatment of patients with severe COVID-19

“…MSCs derived from menstrual blood are widely studied because of their abundant source, strong proliferation ability, low immunogenicity, and painless surgery without ethical controversy [28][29][30][31]. Thus, menstrual bloodderived MSCs have attracted increasing attention, and they have been broadly applied in basic medicine and clinical trials [32,33]. Our team has also demonstrated that menstrual blood-derived MSC transplantation is an alternative method for treating ARDS with influenza A (H7N9) infection and thereby reducing mortality relative to controls [34].…”

Mesenchymal stem cells: amazing remedies for bone and cartilage defects

“…1 ). These cells are isolated from a variety of tissues like bone marrow (BM), adipose tissue, fetal liver, umbilical cord (UC), muscle, endometrial polyps, dental tissue, synovial fluid, skin, foreskin, Wharton’s jelly (WJ), placenta, dental pulp (DP), breast milk, gingiva, amnion, and menstrual blood [ 40 – 54 ]. MSCs are characterized as plastic adherent cells with fibroblastic morphology in culture.…”