• After the Covid pandemic, we have resumed stem cell treatments. Appropriate sterility and great care in sanitisation is undertaken as usual. If you are unwell with a cough cold or respiratory symptoms it is best to postpone your procedure.

Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Multiple Sclerosis: Does Neural Differentiation Really Matter?

150 150 NZ Stem Cell Treatment Centre

Curr Stem Cell Res Ther. 2010 Oct 18. [Epub ahead of print]
Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Multiple Sclerosis: Does Neural Differentiation Really Matter?

Uccelli A, Morando S, Bonanno S, Bonanni I, Leonardi A, Mancardi G.
Department of Neurosciences, Ophthalmology and Genetics, University of Genoa, Genoa. auccelli@neurologia.unige.it

Abstract
The lack of therapies fostering remyelination and regeneration of the neural network deranged by the autoimmune attack occurring in multiple sclerosis (MS), is raising great expectations about stem cells therapies for tissue repair. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been proposed as a possible treatment for MS due to the reported capacity of transdifferentiation into neural cells and their ability at modulating immune responses. However, recent studies have demonstrated that many other functional properties are likely to play a role in the therapeutic plasticity of MSCs, including anti-apoptotic, trophic and anti-oxidant effects. These features are mostly based on the paracrine release of soluble molecules, often dictated by local environmental cues. Based on the modest evidence of long-term engraftment and the striking clinical effects that are observed immediately after MSCs administration in the experimental model of MS, we do not favor a major role for transdifferentiation as an important mechanism involved in the therapeutic effect of MSCs.

PMID: 20955153 [PubMed – as supplied by publisher]