Current progress in mesenchymal stem/stromal cell research.

DA SILVA MEIRELLES, LINDOLFO; WIDERA, DARIUS; BOLONTRADE, MARCELA F.

Front. Cell Dev. Biol

Frontiers

Año: 2023

Currently, mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), which are often still referred to as mesenchymal stem cells, are among the most used cells in clinical trials. When the Editorial for the first edition of this Research Topic was written (mid-January 2021), a search at www.clinicaltrials.gov using the string “MSCs OR mesenchymal stem cells OR mesenchymal stromal cells” returned 10,407 registered clinical trials, 3,467 of which were active. Now, as the Editorial for the second volume of this Research Topic is released (early March 2023), the same search returns 13,121 studies, 4,170 of which are active. To give an idea of what those numbers represent, when the same database is queried using the string “HSCs OR hematopoietic stem cells OR hemopoietic stem cells”, it returns 6,096 studies, 1,701 of them active. In spite of the impressive number of clinical trials using MSCs, the use of these cells in the clinic has not become established as a routine yet, which calls for further investigation of their biological properties