Testing the Paracrine Properties of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells Using Conditioned Medium.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) produce and secrete a great variety of cytokines and chemokines that play beneficial paracrine actions when MSC are used for tissue repair. The conditioned medium (CM) derived from MSC can be used both in vitro and in vivo to test specific paracrine effects or to screen putative paracrine/autocrine mediators by proteomics.In this chapter, we describe a straightforward method to prepare MSC-derived CM.

Paracrine Mechanisms of Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Tissue Repair.

Tissue regeneration from transplanted mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) either through transdifferentiation or cell fusion was originally proposed as the principal mechanism underlying their therapeutic action. However, several studies have now shown that both these mechanisms are very inefficient. The low MSC engraftment rate documented in injured areas also refutes the hypothesis that MSC repair tissue damage by replacing cell loss with newly differentiated cells.

Conditioned medium from human amniotic mesenchymal stromal cells limits infarct size and enhances angiogenesis.

The paracrine properties of human amniotic membrane-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (hAMCs) have not been fully elucidated. The goal of the present study was to elucidate whether hAMCs can exert beneficial paracrine effects on infarcted rat hearts, in particular through cardioprotection and angiogenesis. Moreover, we aimed to identify the putative active paracrine mediators.

Combination of miRNA499 and miRNA133 exerts a synergic effect on cardiac differentiation.

Several studies have demonstrated that miRNA are involved in cardiac development, stem cell maintenance, and differentiation. In particular, it has been shown that miRNA133, miRNA1, and miRNA499 are involved in progenitor cell differentiation into cardiomyocytes. However, it is unknown whether different miRNA may act synergistically to improve cardiac differentiation.

Mesenchymal stem cell therapy for heart disease.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are adult stem cells with capacity for self-renewal and multi-lineage differentiation. Initially described in the bone marrow, MSC are also present in other organs and tissues. From a therapeutic perspective, because of their easy preparation and immunologic privilege, MSC are emerging as an extremely promising therapeutic agent for tissue regeneration and repair.