Potential Applications

Potential Therapeutic Application

SourceUmbilical Cord Lining
Type of Stem Cells Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) Epithelial Stem Cells (EpSCs)

Potential Treatment for

Tissue repair

  • Myocardial infarction (heart muscle repair)
  • Osteoarthiritis
    (cartilage repair and other orthopedic applications)
  • Stroke
  • Pulmonary fibrosis

HSCs engraftment support

  • Shorten time of engraftment
  • Reduce immune system complications

Immune modulation

  • Type 1 diabetes
  • Crohn's disease
  • Graft versus Host Disease (GvHD)

Wounds/soft tissue repair

  • Surface ulcers
    (e.g. diabetic ulcers)
  • Various types of burns
  • Tissue trauma
  • Lining of liver
  • Replacement of corneal membrane

Today, more than 190 clinical trials1 are on-going worldwide to uncover the potential of MSCs. Thus far, encouraging results have been published; stem cell treatments have been proven safe and capable of repairing damage caused by stroke and heart disease. MSCs have also been used in combination with HSCs as a dual therapy to promote faster engraftment of HSCs and to reduce immune system complications2.

Although there is evidence that MSCs can be changed to certain types of Epithelial cells, the cells cannot be changed into Epithelial Stem Cells (EpSCs). The difference between Epithelial Stem Cells and Epithelial cells is that Epithelial Stem Cells can differentiate into all different epithelial cell types such as skin, cornea, lining of the gut, etc. on demand. Whereas, (non-stem) Epithelial cells have already reached terminal differentiation so the cells cannot be further changed into different Epithelial cell types when needed. Thus, MSCs and EpSCs cannot be replaced by each other.

1 ClinicalTrials.gov. Accessed on 4 January 2012. (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?term=mesenchymal+stem+cells)
2 Battiwalla M, Hematti P. 2010. Cytotherapy. 1 January 2010.

Worldwide researches on diseases treated with MSCs by various Universities or Research Institutions:

DiseasesName of Universities/Research Institutions
Stroke University Hospital, Grenobe, France
Spinal Cord Injury
  • Cairo University, Egypt
  • Chinese University of Hong Kong
Multiple Sclerosis
  • Spain-Carlos Health Institute
  • University of Cambridge, U.K.
  • Cleveland Clinic, U.S.
Amylotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Hadassah Medical Organization, Israel
Parkinson's Disease Jaslok Hospital and Research Centre, India
Multiple System Atrophy Yonsei University, South Korea
Liver Disease Cytori Therapeutics, U.S.
Diabetic Foot Ulcer
  • Third Military Medical University, China
  • Washington DC Veterans Medical Centre, U.S.
  • Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany
Diabetes
  • FuZhou General Hospital, China
  • Uppsala University, Sweden
back to top