Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy-Is the Vessel Half Full or Half Empty?

The urgency of the search and introduction into medical practice of the method for the therapy of severe forms of pneumonia COVID-19 is due to the lack of effective treatment methods that can destroy the pathogen. Expectations of a good clinical effect from the application of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are not groundless: there is a scientific justification in using MSCs for the treatment of inflammatory diseases and of the proven mechanisms of their action. Along with this, there are very little reliable data about the mechanism of MSCs' action when they are systemically administrated to a human or on the distribution of cells in the body and the long-term consequences of such administration.

Effect of recombinant erythropoietin on functional activity of cultured human cells.

We studied the effect of recombinant human erythropoietin on functional activity of skin cells in vitro. It was found that erythropoietin stimulated proliferation of mesenchymal and epithelial cells and effectively protected epidermal HaCaT cells from apoptosis. Insignificant effect of erythropoietin on contraction of collagen gel by mesenchymal cells was revealed.