The anti-fibrotic effect of human fetal skin-derived stem cell secretome on the liver fibrosis

Smart Microneedle Arrays Integrating Cell-Free Therapy and Nanocatalysis to Treat Liver Fibrosis

Liver fibrosis is a chronic pathological condition lacking specific clinical treatments. Stem cells, with notable potential in regenerative medicine, offer promise in treating liver fibrosis. However, stem cell therapy is hindered by potential immunological rejection, carcinogenesis risk, efficacy variation, and high cost. Stem cell secretome-based cell-free therapy offers potential solutions to address these challenges, but it is limited by low delivery efficiency and rapid clearance. Herein, an innovative approach for in situ implantation of smart microneedle (MN) arrays enabling precisely controlled delivery of multiple therapeutic agents directly into fibrotic liver tissues is developed. By integrating cell-free and platinum-based nanocatalytic combination therapy, the MN arrays can deactivate hepatic stellate cells. Moreover, they promote excessive extracellular matrix degradation by more than 75%, approaching normal levels. Additionally, the smart MN arrays can provide hepatocyte protection while reducing inflammation levels by ≈70-90%. They can also exhibit remarkable capability in scavenging almost 100% of reactive oxygen species and alleviating hypoxia. Ultimately, this treatment strategy can effectively restrain fibrosis progression. The comprehensive in vitro and in vivo experiments, supplemented by proteome and transcriptome analyses, substantiate the effectiveness of the approach in treating liver fibrosis, holding immense promise for clinical applications.

Fetal progenitor cells for treatment of chronic limb ischemia

OBJECTIVES

This study investigated the therapeutic potential of fetal progenitor cells (FPCs) in the treatment of chronic non-healing wounds and ulcers associated with chronic limb ischemia (CLI). The research aimed to elucidate the mechanism of action of FPCs and evaluate their efficacy and safety in CLI patients.

METHODS

The researchers isolated FPCs from aborted human fetal liver, brain, and skin tissues and thoroughly characterized them. The preclinical phase of the study involved assessing the effects of FPCs in a rat model of CLI. Subsequently, a randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted to compare the efficacy of FPCs with standard treatment and autologous bone marrow mononuclear cells in CLI patients. The clinical trial lasted 12 months, with a follow-up period of 24-36 months. The primary outcomes included wound healing, frequency of major and minor amputations, pain reduction, and the incidence of complications. Secondary outcomes involved changes in local hemodynamics and histological, ultrastructural, and immunohistochemical assessments of angiogenesis.

RESULTS

In the animal model, FPC treatment significantly enhanced angiogenesis and accelerated healing of ischemic wounds compared to controls. The clinical trial in CLI patients demonstrated that the FPC therapy achieved substantially higher rates of complete wound closure, prevention of major amputation, pain reduction, and improvement in ankle-brachial index compared to control groups. Notably, the study reported no serious adverse events.

CONCLUSIONS

FPC therapy exhibited remarkable efficacy in promoting the healing of ischemic wounds, preventing amputation, and improving symptoms and quality of life in patients with CLI. The proangiogenic and provasculogenic effects of FPCs may be attributed to their ability to secrete specific growth factors. These findings provide new insights into the development of cellular therapeutic angiogenesis as a promising approach for the treatment of peripheral arterial diseases.

The pathological and therapeutically role of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-derived exosome in degenerative diseases; Particular focus on LncRNA and microRNA

By releasing exosomes, which create the ideal milieu for the resolution of inflammation, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) enhance tissue healing and have strong immunomodulatory capabilities. MSCs-derived exosome also can affect tumor progress by a myriad of mechanisms. Exosomes function as a cell-cell communication tool to affect cellular activity in recipient cells and include an array of efficient bioactive chemicals. Understanding the fundamental biology of inflammation ablation, tissue homeostasis, and the creation of therapeutic strategies is particularly interested in the horizontal transfer of exosomal long non-coding RNAs (lncRNA) and microRNAs (miRNAs) to recipient cells, where they affect target gene expression. Herein, we propose an exosomal lncRNA and microRNA profile in neurological, renal, cardiac, lung, and liver diseases as well as skin wounds and arthritis.

Mesenchymal (Stem) Stromal Cells Based as New Therapeutic Alternative in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Basic Mechanisms, Experimental and Clinical Evidence, and Challenges

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are an example of chronic diseases affecting 40% of the population, which involved tissue damage and an inflammatory process not satisfactorily controlled with current therapies. Data suggest that mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) may be a therapeutic option for these processes, and especially for IBD, due to their multifactorial approaches such as anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative stress, anti-apoptotic, anti-fibrotic, regenerative, angiogenic, anti-tumor, or anti-microbial. However, MSC therapy is associated with important limitations as safety issues, handling difficulties for therapeutic purposes, and high economic cost. MSC-derived secretome products (conditioned medium or extracellular vesicles) are therefore a therapeutic option in IBD as they exhibit similar effects to their parent cells and avoid the issues of cell therapy. In this review, we proposed further studies to choose the ideal tissue source of MSC to treat IBD, the implementation of new standardized production strategies, quality controls and the integration of other technologies, such as hydrogels, which may improve the therapeutic effects of derived-MSC secretome products in IBD.

Human neural stem cells secretome inhibits lipopolysaccharide-induced neuroinflammation through modulating microglia polarization by activating PPAR-γ

Neuroinflammation is one of the typical events in multiple neurodegenerative diseases, whereas microglia are the critical participants in the pathogenesis of neuroinflammation. Several studies suggest that neural stem cells (NSCs) present immunomodulatory benefits due to their paracrine products, which contain mounting trophic factors. In the current study, the anti-inflammatory effects of neural stem cells secretome (NSC-S) on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced neuroinflammatory models were evaluated in vivo and the underlying mechanism was further investigated in vitro. It was revealed that NSC-S significantly attenuated the severity of LPS-induced behaviour disorders and inflammatory response in mice. In vitro studies found that NSC-S significantly promoted the polarization of microglia from proinflammatory M1 to anti-inflammatory M2 phenotype, and reduced the production of proinflammatory cytokines while elevated anti-inflammatory cytokines in BV2 cells. NSC-S promoted peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-γ) pathway activation. However, these effects of NSC-S were abrogated by PPAR-γ inhibitor GW9662. Notably, the fatty acid binding protein 5 (FABP5) in NSC-S may mediate PPAR-γ activation and inflammation remission. In summary, NSC-S promotes the regression of LPS-induced microglia-mediated inflammation through the PPAR-γ pathway. This function might be achieved via FABP5.

Delivery of Stem Cell Secretome for Therapeutic Applications

Intensive studies on stem cell therapy reveal that benefits of stem cells attribute to the paracrine effects. Hence, direct delivery of stem cell secretome to the injured site shows the comparative therapeutic efficacy of living cells while avoiding the potential limitations. However, conventional systemic administration of stem cell secretome often leads to rapid clearance in vivo. Therefore, a variety of different biomaterials are developed for sustained and controllable delivery of stem cell secretome to improve therapeutic efficiency. In this review, we first introduce current approaches for the preparation and characterization of stem cell secretome as well as strategies to improve their therapeutic efficacy and production. The up-to-date delivery platforms are also summarized, including nanoparticles, injectable hydrogels, microneedles, and scaffold patches. Meanwhile, we discuss the underlying therapeutic mechanism of stem cell secretome for the treatment of various diseases. In the end, future opportunities and challenges are proposed.

Effect of conditioned medium from adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells on endoplasmic reticulum stress and lipid metabolism after hepatic ischemia reperfusion injury and hepatectomy in swine

AIMS

Hepatic ischemia reperfusion injury (HIRI) is associated with liver failure after liver transplantation and hepatectomy. Thus, this study aims to explore the effect of conditioned medium from adipose derived stem cells (ADSC-CM) on endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) and lipid metabolism after HIRI combined with hepatectomy in miniature pigs.

MAIN METHODS

A model of HIRI combined with hepatectomy in miniature pigs was established. The expression of ERS-related proteins and lipid metabolism related genes, as well as triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein (HDL), very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) and acetyl-CoA carboxylase 1 (ACC1) level were measured in liver tissues.

KEY FINDINGS

Both ADSCs and ADSC-CM could improve the damage in the ultrastructure of hepatocytes. ADSC-CM significantly decreased the protein expression of GRP78, ATF6, XBP1, p-eIF2α, ATF4, p-JNK and CHOP. Oil red O staining revealed that the degree of hepatocyte steatosis was also significantly reduced after treatment with ADSC-CM. In addition, ADSC-CM remarkably decreased TG, TC, HDL and ACC1 level in liver tissues, while enhanced VLDL content. Finally, SREBP1, SCAP, FASN, ACC1, HMGCR and HMGCS1 mRNA expression was also markedly downregulated in liver tissues.

SIGNIFICANCE

Injection of ADSC-CM into the hepatic parenchymal could represent a novel cell-free therapeutic approach to improve HIRI combined with hepatectomy injury. The inhibition of ERS and the improvement of lipid metabolism in the hepatocytes might be a potential mechanism used by ADSC-CM to prevent liver injury from HIRI combined with hepatectomy.

Bone marrow derived-mesenchymal stem cell improves diabetes-associated fatty liver via mitochondria transformation in mice

Background

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become a global epidemic disease. Its incidence is associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Presently, there is no approved pharmacological agents specially developed for NAFLD. One promising disease-modifying strategy is the transplantation of stem cells to promote metabolic regulation and repair of injury.

Method

In this study, a T2DM model was established through 28-week high-fat diet (HFD) feeding resulting in T2DM-associated NAFLD, followed by the injection of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs). The morphology, function, and transfer of hepatocyte mitochondria were evaluated in both vivo and in vitro.

Results

BMSC implantation resulted in the considerable recovery of increasing weight, HFD-induced steatosis, liver function, and disordered glucose and lipid metabolism. The treatment with BMSC transplantation was accompanied by reduced fat accumulation. Moreover, mitochondrial transfer was observed in both vivo and vitro studies. And the mitochondria-recipient steatotic cells exhibited significantly enhanced OXPHOS activity, ATP production, and mitochondrial membrane potential, and reduced reactive oxygen species levels, which were not achieved by the blocking of mitochondrial transfer.

Conclusion

Mitochondrial transfer from BMSCs is a feasible process to combat NAFLD via rescuing dysfunction mitochondria, and has a promising therapeutic effect on metabolism-related diseases.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13287-021-02663-5.

Mesenchymal Stem Cells as a Cornerstone in a Galaxy of Intercellular Signals: Basis for a New Era of Medicine

Around 40% of the population will suffer at some point in their life a disease involving tissue loss or an inflammatory or autoimmune process that cannot be satisfactorily controlled with current therapies. An alternative for these processes is represented by stem cells and, especially, mesenchymal stem cells (MSC). Numerous preclinical studies have shown MSC to have therapeutic effects in different clinical conditions, probably due to their mesodermal origin. Thereby, MSC appear to play a central role in the control of a galaxy of intercellular signals of anti-inflammatory, regenerative, angiogenic, anti-fibrotic, anti-oxidative stress effects of anti-apoptotic, anti-tumor, or anti-microbial type. This concept forces us to return to the origin of natural physiological processes as a starting point to understand the evolution of MSC therapy in the field of regenerative medicine. These biological effects, demonstrated in countless preclinical studies, justify their first clinical applications, and draw a horizon of new therapeutic strategies. However, several limitations of MSC as cell therapy are recognized, such as safety issues, handling difficulties for therapeutic purposes, and high economic cost. For these reasons, there is an ongoing tendency to consider the use of MSC-derived secretome products as a therapeutic tool, since they reproduce the effects of their parent cells. However, it will be necessary to resolve key aspects, such as the choice of the ideal type of MSC according to their origin for each therapeutic indication and the implementation of new standardized production strategies. Therefore, stem cell science based on an intelligently designed production of MSC and or their derivative products will be able to advance towards an innovative and more personalized medical biotechnology.