The concomitant tumor suspension cells derived from SKBR-3 exhibit circulating tumor cell features.

Metastatic diseases are the major causes of cancer related deaths. Circulating tumor cells are important mediators for distant metastases. However, knowledge about circulating tumor cells is still limited due to their small quantity, lack of explicit markers, interferences from blood cells and immune cells, and so on.

Engineering stem cells to produce exosomes with enhanced bone regeneration effects: an alternative strategy for gene therapy.

Background: Exosomes derived from stem cells have been widely studied for promoting regeneration and reconstruction of multiple tissues as "cell-free" therapies. However, the applications of exosomes have been hindered by limited sources and insufficient therapeutic potency.

Results: In this study, a stem cell-mediated gene therapy strategy is developed in which mediator mesenchymal stem cells are genetically engineered by bone morphogenetic protein-2 gene to produce exosomes (MSC-BMP2-Exo) with enhanced bone regeneration potency.

Impact of adipose tissue or umbilical cord derived mesenchymal stem cells on the immunogenicity of human cord blood derived endothelial progenitor cells.

The application of autologous endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) transplantation is a promising approach in therapeutic cardiovascular diseases and ischemic diseases. In this study, we compared the immunogenicity of EPCs, adipose tissue (AD)-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and umbilical cord (UC)-derived MSCs by flow cytometry and the mixed lymphocyte reaction. The impact of AD-MSCs and UC-MSCs on the immunogenicity of EPCs was analyzed by the mixed lymphocyte reaction and cytokine secretion in vitro and was further tested by allogenic peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) induced immuno-rejection on a cell/matrigel graft in an SCID mouse model.