AUTHOR=Kebriaei Partow , Robinson Simon 

TITLE=Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy in the Treatment of Acute and Chronic Graft Versus Host Disease

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Oncology

VOLUME=1

YEAR=2011

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/oncology/articles/10.3389/fonc.2011.00016

DOI=10.3389/fonc.2011.00016

ISSN=2234-943X

ABSTRACT=<p>Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are a cellular component of the supportive microenvironment (stroma) found in the bone marrow, umbilical cord, placenta, and adipose tissues. In addition to providing cellular and extracellular cues to support the proliferation and differentiation of cells that comprise functional tissues, MSC also contribute to tissue repair and have immunomodulatory properties. Their ability to modulate immunologic reactions while themselves not provoking immunologic responses from alloreactive T-lymphocytes and/or other effector cells, make MSC a potentially ideal therapeutic agent with which to treat graft versus host disease (G<italic>v</italic>HD) following hematopoietic transplantation. Despite <italic>in vitro</italic> experiments confirming that MSC suppress mixed lymphocyte reactions (MLR) and <italic>in vivo</italic> evidence from mouse models that show evidence that MSC can ameliorate G<italic>v</italic>HD, clinical trials to date using MSC to treat G<italic>v</italic>HD have shown mixed results. Whether this is a consequence of suboptimal timing and dose of administered MSC remains to be clarified. It is clear that immunomodulatory potential of MSC as a cellular therapy for G<italic>v</italic>HD remains to be realized in the clinic.</p>