Protective Effect of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells on the Survival of Pancreatic Islets.

Background And Objectives: Transplantation of pancreatic islets is an intriguing new therapeutic option to face the worldwide spread problem of Type-I diabetes. Currently, its clinical use is limited by several problems, mainly based on the high number of islets required to restore normoglycaemia and by the low survival of the transplanted tissue. A promising attempt to overcome the limits to such an approach was represented by the use of Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSC).

Mesenchymal Stem Cells as New Therapeutic Approach for Diabetes and Pancreatic Disorders.

Diabetes is a worldwide disease which actually includes different disorders related to glucose metabolism. According to different epidemiological studies, patients affected by diabetes present a higher risk to develop both acute and chronic pancreatitis, clinical situations which, in turn, increase the risk to develop pancreatic cancer. Current therapies are able to adjust insulin levels according to blood glucose peak, but they only partly reach the goal to abrogate the consequent inflammatory milieu responsible for diabetes-related diseases.

Evaluation of the Profile and Mechanism of Neurotoxicity of Water-Soluble [Cu(P)]PF and [Au(P)]PF (P = thp or PTA) Anticancer Complexes.

[Cu(thp)]PF, [Cu(PTA)]PF, [Au(thp)]PF and [Au(PTA)]PF are phosphane (thp = tris(hydroxymethyl)phosphane; PTA = 1,3,5-triaza-7-phosphaadamantane) copper(I) and gold(I) water-soluble complexes characterized by high anticancer activity in a wide range of solid tumors, often able to overcome drug resistance of platinum-based compounds. For these reasons, they have been proposed as a valid alternative to platinum-based chemotherapeutic drugs (e.g.

Comparing the different response of PNS and CNS injured neurons to mesenchymal stem cell treatment.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are adult bone marrow-derived stem cells actually proposed indifferently for the therapy of neurological diseases of both the Central (CNS) and the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS), as a panacea able to treat so many different diseases by their immunomodulatory ability and supportive action on neuronal survival. However, the identification of the exact mechanism of MSC action in the different diseases, although mandatory to define their real and concrete utility, is still lacking. Moreover, CNS and PNS neurons present many different biological properties, and it is still unclear if they respond in the same manner not only to MSC treatment, but also to injuries.

Therapeutic potential of Mesenchymal Stem Cells for the treatment of diabetic peripheral neuropathy.

Type-1 Diabetes is generally treated with exogenous insulin administration. Despite treatment, a very common long term consequence of diabetes is the development of a disabling and painful peripheral neuropathy. The transplantation of pancreatic islets is an advanced alternative therapeutic approach, but its clinical application is still very limited, mainly because of the great number of islets required to complete the procedure and of their short-term survival.

Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells Protect Dorsal Root Ganglia from the Neurotoxic Effect of Cisplatin.

Background/aim: Peripheral neurotoxicity is a dose-limiting factor of many chemotherapeutic agents, including cisplatin. Mesenchymal stem cells are promising for the treatment of several neurological disorders, and our aim was to verify the neuroprotective potential of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) on dorsal root ganglia (DRG) exposed to cisplatin.

Materials And Methods: DRG were exposed to different cisplatin concentrations and then co-cultured with hMSCs or with hMSC-conditioned medium.

Axonal Transport Impairment in Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy.

Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy (CIPN) is a dose-limiting side effect of several antineoplastic drugs which significantly reduces patients' quality of life. Although different molecular mechanisms have been investigated, CIPN pathobiology has not been clarified yet. It has largely been recognized that Dorsal Root Ganglia are the main targets of chemotherapy and that the longest nerves are the most damaged, together with fast axonal transport.

Neurobasal medium toxicity on mature cortical neurons.

Neurobasal medium (NBM) is a widely used medium for neuronal cultures, originally formulated to support survival of rat hippocampal neurons, but then optimized for several other neuronal subtypes. In the present study, the toxic effect of NBM on long-term cortical neuron cultures has been reported and investigated. A significant neuronal cell loss was observed 24 h after the total medium change performed at days in vitro 10.

Expression of neural markers by undifferentiated mesenchymal-like stem cells from different sources.

The spontaneous expression of neural markers, already demonstrated in bone marrow (BM) mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), has been considered as evidence of the MSCs' predisposition to differentiate toward neural lineages, supporting their use in stem cell-based therapy for neural repair. In this study we have evaluated, by immunocytochemistry, immunoblotting, and flow cytometry experiments, the expression of neural markers in undifferentiated MSCs from different sources: human adipose stem cells (hASCs), human skin-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hS-MSCs), human periodontal ligament stem cells (hPDLSCs,) and human dental pulp stem cells (hDPSCs). Our results demonstrate that the neuronal markers β III-tubulin and NeuN, unlike other evaluated markers, are spontaneously expressed by a very high percentage of undifferentiated hASCs, hS-MSCs, hPDLSCs, and hDPSCs.

A double mechanism for the mesenchymal stem cells' positive effect on pancreatic islets.

The clinical usability of pancreatic islet transplantation for the treatment of type I diabetes, despite some encouraging results, is currently hampered by the short lifespan of the transplanted tissue. In vivo studies have demonstrated that co-transplantation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) with transplanted pancreatic islets is more effective with respect to pancreatic islets alone in ensuring glycemia control in diabetic rats, but the molecular mechanisms of this action are still unclear. The aim of this study was to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of the positive effect of MSCs on pancreatic islet functionality by setting up direct, indirect and mixed co-cultures.