Diagnostic and Therapeutic Application of Menstrual Blood Stem Cells: Direction Toward Clinic

The source of stem cells, in order to maximize the safety and efficacy oftissue engineering and cell-based therapies, is clearly of great importance.Nowadays, the menstrual blood has been introduced as a non-invasivesource of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) with several advantages,including (i) easy accessibility without the need for anesthetic, (ii)renewability as they can be sourced on a monthly basis, (iii) highproliferative capacity in culture without inducing genetic abnormalities,and (iv) non-ethical concerns. We showed that the isolated menstrualblood stem cells (MenSCs) have higher proliferative and self-renewalcapacities than other MSCs like bone marrow stem cells (BMSCs) andcan modulate the inflammatory reaction. Moreover, MenSCs coulddifferentiate into multiple mesodermal and occasionally endodermaland ectodermal lineages, but with different capacity depending onlineage type compared to other MSCs like BMSCs. We also indicatedtypical repair and/or restoration ability of MenSCs compared to BMSCsin animal models with myocardial infarction, acute liver failure, andcartilage defects without using immunosuppressant. These data makeMenSCs extremely attractive and useful for the stem cells therapy evenin allogeneic cellular therapies and open a wide perspective of potentialclinical applications to other stem cell sources. At present, some clinicalresearch groups including us and companies launched clinical trialsusing these cells. Based on the preliminary results, these cells sound to besafe and efficient through cell therapy of some disorders like congestiveheart disease, multiple sclerosis, Asherman syndrome in women and soon. Another interesting idea is MenSCs banking in order to treatmentof probable disorders in especially post-menopause age. Since thesecells are well tolerated, with no toxicity or any adverse side effectsreport, banking and holding this source of stem cells can be suitablefor clinical use. Therefore, it sounds that MenSCs banking has a vastscope in the future and is the next big thing in the medical world. Besideclinical application, the possible role of MenSCs as a diagnostic toolespecially in the pathogenesis of endometriosis endometrial hyperplasiaand endometrial cancer has been suggested. These finding can beachieved through the study of MenSCs obtained from women withpregnancy disease in comparison to MenSCs isolated from donors withuncomplicated pregnancy history. Future research and new evidencewould greatly propose MenSCs as a novel and best diagnostic tool incomplicated pregnancy. Therefore, MenSCs are extremely attractive anduseful for the diagnosis of reproductive disorders and also stem cellstherapy even in allogeneic cellular therapies and open a wide perspectiveof potential clinical applications to other stem cell sources.

کلیدواژه ها:

Menstrual blood ، Stem Cell ، Differentiation ، Cell Therapy ، Regenerative medicine ، Clinical application