Will Nanotechnology Bring New Hope for Stem Cell Therapy?

2018 ◽  
Vol 206 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 229-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saeed Farzamfar ◽  
Niloofar Nazeri ◽  
Majid Salehi ◽  
Alireza Valizadeh ◽  
Sayed Mahdi Marashi ◽  
...  

The potential of stem cell therapy has been shown in preclinical trials for the treatment of damage and replacement of organs and degenerative diseases. After many years of research, its clinical application is limited. Currently there is not a single stem cell therapy product or procedure. Nanotechnology is an emerging field in medicine and has huge potential due to its unique characteristics such as its size, surface effects, tunnel effects, and quantum size effect. The importance of application of nanotechnology in stem cell technology and cell-based therapies has been recognized. In particular, the effects of nanotopography on stem cell differentiation, proliferation, and adhesion have become an area of intense research in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Despite the many opportunities that nanotechnology can create to change the fate of stem cell technology and cell therapies, it poses several risks since some nanomaterials are cytotoxic and can affect the differentiation program of stem cells and their viability. Here we review some of the advances and the prospects of nanotechnology in stem cell research and cell-based therapies and discuss the issues, obstacles, applications, and approaches with the aim of opening new avenues for further research.

Author(s):  
Zeinab Shaker ◽  
Zohreh Shaker ◽  
Mohsen Barouni

Background: Skin and wound injuries are important health problems with great mortality rates. While there are different alternative therapies, there is no agreement on the best therapy for burn wounds and wound complications. Stem cell therapy has an optimistic prospect in many preclinical studies of burn wounds and diabetic wounds. Objectives: In this study, we performed a rapid review to evaluate the efficacy and safety of stem cell therapy in wound treatment. Methods: This rapid review of the evidence aimed to evaluate the potential effects of stem cells on wound healing to create a policy guide for policymakers in the health care system. We searched such databases as PubMed and Scopus on March 13, 2021 using keywords, including “stem cells and wound healing”, “safety”, and “efficacy”. The references of retrieved studies were also checked to ensure the capture of the literature. Studies evaluating the safety and efficacy of stem cells on wound healing published in Persian and English were included. Generally, we used the PICO (population, intervention, control, and outcomes) model for search strategy. Results: Out of a total of 92 retrieved papers, 22 studies were eligible for inclusion. The overall review showed that stem cell therapy improved wounds. Also, studies showed that using stem cell technology in a non-invasive way could be a good alternative. However, the limitations of this technology consisted of the need to improve cell delivery methods, cell sustainability, heterogeneity in the research of mesenchymal stem cells, and wound substrate. Further studies are needed to determine its safety and efficacy. Conclusions: Although the evidence on the safety and efficacy of using stem cells for wound healing was limited, studies showed that stem cell technology is a good alternative to traditional therapies. Future clinical studies should consider the differences in the studies to achieve maximum effectiveness.


Molecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (23) ◽  
pp. 5554
Author(s):  
Francesca Ravera ◽  
Esen Efeoglu ◽  
Hugh J. Byrne

Stem cell technology has attracted considerable attention over recent decades due to its enormous potential in regenerative medicine and disease therapeutics. Studying the underlying mechanisms of stem cell differentiation and tissue generation is critical, and robust methodologies and different technologies are required. Towards establishing improved understanding and optimised triggering and control of differentiation processes, analytical techniques such as flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, RNA in situ hybridisation analysis, and fluorescence-activated cell sorting have contributed much. However, progress in the field remains limited because such techniques provide only limited information, as they are only able to address specific, selected aspects of the process, and/or cannot visualise the process at the subcellular level. Additionally, many current analytical techniques involve the disruption of the investigation process (tissue sectioning, immunostaining) and cannot monitor the cellular differentiation process in situ, in real-time. Vibrational spectroscopy, as a label-free, non-invasive and non-destructive analytical technique, appears to be a promising candidate to potentially overcome many of these limitations as it can provide detailed biochemical fingerprint information for analysis of cells, tissues, and body fluids. The technique has been widely used in disease diagnosis and increasingly in stem cell technology. In this work, the efforts regarding the use of vibrational spectroscopy to identify mechanisms of stem cell differentiation at a single cell and tissue level are summarised. Both infrared absorption and Raman spectroscopic investigations are explored, and the relative merits, and future perspectives of the techniques are discussed.


RSC Advances ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (30) ◽  
pp. 18668-18680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh H. Chan ◽  
Connor A. Wathen ◽  
Ming Ni ◽  
Shuangmu Zhuo

We report the facilitation of stem cell therapy in stroke by tissue engineering and applications of biomaterials.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sevil Kestane

This overview was evaluated by the development of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and the stem cell therapy approach. DR is a microvascular complication of diabetes mellitus, characterized by damage to the retinal blood vessels leading to progressive loss of vision. However, the pathophysiological mechanisms are complicated and not completely understood yet. The current treatment strategies have included medical, laser, intravitreal, and surgical approaches. It is known that the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), which has a great potential, is promising for the treatment of many degenerative disorders, including the eye. In retinal degenerative diseases, MSCs were ameliorated retinal neurons and retinal pigmented epithelial cells in both in vitro and in vivo studies. Stem cell therapies show promise in neurodegenerative diseases. However, it is very important to know which type of stem cell will be used in which situations, the amount of stem cells to be applied, the method of application, and its physiological/neurophysiological effects. Therefore, it is of great importance to evaluate this subject physiologically. After stem cell application, its safety and efficacy should be followed for a long time. In the near future, widespread application of regenerative stem cell therapy may be a standard treatment in DR.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Pratley

PICO question In horses with osteoarthritis, is mesenchymal stem cell therapy more effective at managing lameness than intra-articular corticosteroids?   Clinical bottom line Category of research question Treatment The number and type of study designs reviewed Nine papers were critically reviewed; seven experimental trials and two randomised controlled double-blinded trials. Strength of evidence Weak to moderate Outcomes reported There is moderate evidence to suggest that chondrogenically induced mesenchymal stem cells combined with equine allogenic plasma have a good efficacy at reducing lameness in the short-term, in horses with mild to moderate lameness associated with osteoarthritis. However, there is no definitive evidence directly comparing mesenchymal stem cell therapy and corticosteroids, to identify if mesenchymal stem cell therapy is more effective than intra-articular corticosteroids. Conclusion In horses with mild to moderate lameness associated with osteoarthritis, there is moderate evidence to suggest that mesenchymal stem cell therapies are effective at managing lameness. However, it is undetermined whether they are more effacious than intra-articular corticosteroids.   How to apply this evidence in practice The application of evidence into practice should take into account multiple factors, not limited to: individual clinical expertise, patient’s circumstances and owners’ values, country, location or clinic where you work, the individual case in front of you, the availability of therapies and resources. Knowledge Summaries are a resource to help reinforce or inform decision-making. They do not override the responsibility or judgement of the practitioner to do what is best for the animal in their care.  


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Shantha A R

Stem cells are the building blocks of life. They have remarkable potential to regenerate and develop into many different cell types in the body during early life and growth. They are also a class of undifferentiated cells that are able to be differentiated into specialized cells types. Stem cells are characterized by certain features such as totipotency, pluripotency, multipotency, oligopotent and unipotency. The history of stem cell research had an embryonic beginning in the mid 1800s with the discovery that few cells could generate other cells. In the 1900s the first stem cells were discovered when it was found that cells generate blood cells. Nowadays, stem cell therapy is under research and till now, a very few stem cell therapies have been regarded as safe and successful. It is also found that stem cell therapy cast a number of side effects too. The cost of the procedure too is expensive and is not easily affordable.


Author(s):  
Qi Zhang ◽  
Xin-xing Wan ◽  
Xi-min Hu ◽  
Wen-juan Zhao ◽  
Xiao-xia Ban ◽  
...  

Stem cell therapies have shown promising therapeutic effects in restoring damaged tissue and promoting functional repair in a wide range of human diseases. Generations of insulin-producing cells and pancreatic progenitors from stem cells are potential therapeutic methods for treating diabetes and diabetes-related diseases. However, accumulated evidence has demonstrated that multiple types of programmed cell death (PCD) existed in stem cells post-transplantation and compromise their therapeutic efficiency, including apoptosis, autophagy, necroptosis, pyroptosis, and ferroptosis. Understanding the molecular mechanisms in PCD during stem cell transplantation and targeting cell death signaling pathways are vital to successful stem cell therapies. In this review, we highlight the research advances in PCD mechanisms that guide the development of multiple strategies to prevent the loss of stem cells and discuss promising implications for improving stem cell therapy in diabetes and diabetes-related diseases.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (14) ◽  
pp. 4852 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shima Masoudi Asil ◽  
Jyoti Ahlawat ◽  
Gileydis Guillama Barroso ◽  
Mahesh Narayan

In addition to adverse health outcomes, neurological disorders have serious societal and economic impacts on patients, their family and society as a whole. There is no definite treatment for these disorders, and current available drugs only slow down the progression of the disease. In recent years, application of stem cells has been widely advanced due to their potential of self-renewal and differentiation to different cell types which make them suitable candidates for cell therapy. In particular, this approach offers great opportunities for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. However, some major issues related to stem-cell therapy, including their tumorigenicity, viability, safety, metastases, uncontrolled differentiation and possible immune response have limited their application in clinical scales. To address these challenges, a combination of stem-cell therapy with nanotechnology can be a solution. Nanotechnology has the potential of improvement of stem-cell therapy by providing ideal substrates for large scale proliferation of stem cells. Application of nanomaterial in stem-cell culture will be also beneficial to modulation of stem-cell differentiation using nanomedicines. Nanodelivery of functional compounds can enhance the efficiency of neuron therapy by stem cells and development of nanobased techniques for real-time, accurate and long-lasting imaging of stem-cell cycle processes. However, these novel techniques need to be investigated to optimize their efficiency in treatment of neurologic diseases.


Vascular ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-228
Author(s):  
Sherif Sultan ◽  
Edel P Kavanagh ◽  
Robert Michalus ◽  
Niamh Hynes

Approximately eight million people in the United States have peripheral arterial disease, which increases exponentially with age. There have been a plethora of available treatments including surgery, angioplasty, atherectomy, laser technology, and cell-based therapies. Cell-based therapies were developed in the hope of translating laboratory-based technology into clinical successes. However, clinical results have been disappointing. Infusion or injection for stem cell therapy is still considered experimental and investigational, and major questions on safety and durability have arisen. In no option patients, how can they be treated safely and successfully? In this article, we review contemporary practice for cell therapy, its pitfalls and breakthroughs, and look at the future ahead. We introduce a novel smart system for minimally invasive delivery of cell therapies, which exemplifies the next generation of endovascular solutions to stem cell technology and promises safety, efficacy, and reliability.


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