CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells. Their therapeutic potential in medicine. Cell therapy andregenerative medicine are currently active areas for biomedical research. In most tissues, there areself-repair mechanisms carried out mainly by resident stem cells that can differentiate and replace dead cellsor secrete trophic factors that stimulate the regenerative process. These mechanisms often fail in degenerativediseases; thus it is postulated that exogenous cell therapy can contribute to tissue regeneration and repair.Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent adult stem/progenitor cells, which could be easily expanded invitro and have the ability to selectively migrate toward injured tissues, evade the immune system recognition,and secrete trophic factors to support tissue repair. Furthermore, MSCs could be engineered for the delivery oftherapeutic genes. The main sources for MSCs are bone marrow, adipose tissue, and umbilical cord. A numberof pre-clinical and clinical studies have shown that MSCs therapy is safe for both autologous and allogeneic uses.This review summarizes information about the properties of MSCs and their therapeutic potential for a broadspectrum of diseases. We also present here the last data about clinical trials that position the use of MSCs asan interesting tool for tissue regeneration and the treatment of inflammatory diseases