Mesenchymal Stromal Cells as Critical Contributors to Tissue Regeneration
Adult stem cells that are tightly regulated by the specific microenvironment, or the stem cell niche, function to maintain tissue homeostasis and regeneration after damage. This demands the existence of specific niche components that can preserve the stem cell pool in injured tissues and restore the...
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Published in | Frontiers in cell and developmental biology Vol. 8; p. 576176 |
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Main Authors | , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Frontiers Media S.A
25.09.2020
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Adult stem cells that are tightly regulated by the specific microenvironment, or the stem cell niche, function to maintain tissue homeostasis and regeneration after damage. This demands the existence of specific niche components that can preserve the stem cell pool in injured tissues and restore the microenvironment for their subsequent appropriate functioning. This role may belong to mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) due to their resistance to damage signals and potency to be specifically activated in response to tissue injury and promote regeneration by different mechanisms. Increased amount of data indicate that activated MSCs are able to produce factors such as extracellular matrix components, growth factors, extracellular vesicles and organelles, which transiently substitute the regulatory signals from missing niche cells and restrict the injury-induced responses of them. MSCs may recruit functional cells into a niche or differentiate into missing cell components to endow a niche with ability to regulate stem cell fates. They may also promote the dedifferentiation of committed cells to re-establish a pool of functional stem cells after injury. Accumulated evidence indicates the therapeutic promise of MSCs for stimulating tissue regeneration, but the benefits of administered MSCs demonstrated in many injury models are less than expected in clinical studies. This emphasizes the importance of considering the mechanisms of endogenous MSC functioning for the development of effective approaches to their pharmacological activation or mimicking their effects. To achieve this goal, we integrate the current ideas on the contribution of MSCs in restoring the stem cell niches after damage and thereby tissue regeneration. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-3 content type line 23 ObjectType-Review-1 Reviewed by: Andrea Hoffmann, Hannover Medical School, Germany; Pierfrancesco Pagella, University of Zurich, Switzerland Edited by: Nadir Kadri, Karolinska Institutet (KI), Sweden This article was submitted to Stem Cell Research, a section of the journal Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology |
ISSN: | 2296-634X 2296-634X |
DOI: | 10.3389/fcell.2020.576176 |