4.5 – MSC Treatments: Where To Go From Here?

This was one of the first studies to show that mesenchymal stem cells produced from induced pluripotent stem cells are equally as effective as MSCs harvested from tissue for treatment of IBD.

This study opens the doors for using iMSCs as a treatment for other chronic inflammatory, autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases that have seen promising results using tissue-derived MSCs. For instance, previous studies showed that the use of human-derived MSCs in Alzheimer’s disease led to clearing of amyloid beta plaques in the brain and increased neuronal survival. This was shown both in vitro and in vivo.  (Shin et al. 2014). Another study conducted in mice found that injection of bone marrow-derived MSCs could partially repair the heart and improve heart functioning after myocardial infarction (Nagaya et al. 2005). Bone marrow-derived MSCs have also been effective in treating rheumatoid arthritis in mouse models by suppressing pro-inflammatory cytokines and activating regulatory T-cells (Ullah et al. 2015).

With evidence that iMSCs are functionally equivalent to tissue-derived MSCs, these previous studies treating Alzheimer’s disease, myocardial infarction, and rheumatoid arthritis using tissue-derived MSCs could be recapitulated using iMSCs, then furthered into clinical trials. iMSCs are easy to make in large quantities and provide a uniform cell source, creating a possible therapeutic strategy that is readily applicable to a wide array of diseases. With more research into the clinical efficacy and safety of stem cells, its use as a therapeutic tool could be an innovative way to treat diseases.