Neural Regeneration Research ›› 2020, Vol. 15 ›› Issue (1): 75-77.doi: 10.4103/1673-5374.264455

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Mesenchymal stem cells secretome: current trends and future challenges

Fábio G. Teixeira*, António J. Salgado*   

  1. Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Medicine, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal;  ICVS/3B’s Associate Lab, PT Government Associated Lab, Braga/Guimarães, Portugal
  • Online:2020-01-15 Published:2020-05-15
  • Contact: António J. Salgado, PhD,asalgado@med.uminho.pt; Fábio G. Teixeira, PhD,fabioteixeira@med.uminho.pt.
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT): IF Development Grant (IF/00111/2013) to AJ Salgado and Post-Doctoral Fellowship to FGT (SFRH/BPD/118408/ 2016). This work was funded by European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), through the Competitiveness Internationalization Operational Programme (POCI), and by National funds, through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), under the scope of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029751. This work has also been developed under the scope of the project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER- 000023, supported by the Northern Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the FEDER. This work has been funded by FEDER funds, through the Competitiveness Factors Operational Programme (COMPETE), and by National funds, through FCT, under the scope of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007038.

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Abstract: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) secretome: a good candidate for medical biotechnology? Medical biotechnology is currently defined as the application of biotechnological tools for producing multiple technologies and products to health care, becoming an important bridge between different fields, namely neuroscience, regenerative medicine, pharmacology and bio-engineering (Pham, 2018). The use and manipulation of stem cells can potentially represent a medical biotechnology breakthrough that brings regenerative medicine to a new era. Actually, over the last decade, the use of stem cells has remarkably been proposed as a regenerative tool, and within it, MSCs have emerged as a promising therapeutic option. As a consequence, they currently represent an effective tool in the treatment of several diseases due to their tissue protective and reparative mechanisms (Phelps et al., 2018). Indeed, MSCs are the most frequently stem cell population used in clinical trials (as of the end of 2018, a total of 861 trials were registered according to the US National Institute of Health – https://clinicaltrials.gov), presenting key advantages such as (1) be isolated from a patient and used for autologous transplantation; (2) not divide uncontrollably and form teratomas; and (3) have the capability to differentiate into multiple lineages (Kusuma et al., 2017). The initial therapeutic rationale of the use of MSCs in regenerative medicine as mostly attributed to their capability of homing to injury sites and differentiates into different cell types, leading to tissue repair. Although promising, this theory was revisited at the beginning of the 20th century when, for the first time, Gnecchi and colleagues revealed that MSCs mediated its therapeutical effects by the secretion and release of trophic molecules, nowadays known as secretome (Gnecchi et al., 2005). Indeed, cell tracking analysis has revealed that when transplanted, MSCs (and stem cells in general) do not commonly become a part of the injured site, whereby accumulating pieces of evidence indicate that the secretome is considered the primary attribute of MSC-mediated repair and regeneration (Teixeira et al., 2013).