title: New strategies for overcoming limitations of mesenchymal stem cell-based immune modulation.
abstract: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have rapidly been applied in a broad field of immune-mediated disorders since the first successful clinical use of MSCs for treatment of graft-versus-host disease. Despite the lack of supporting data, expectations that MSCs could potentially treat most inflammatory conditions led to rushed application and development of commercialized products. Today, both pre-clinical and clinical studies present mixed results for MSC therapy and the discrepancy between expected and actual efficacy of MSCs in various diseases has evoked a sense of discouragement. Therefore, we believe that MSC therapy may now be at a critical milestone for re-evaluation and re-consideration. In this review, we summarize the current status of MSC-based clinical trials and focus on the discrepancy between expected and actual outcome of MSC therapy from bench to bedside. Importantly, we discuss the underlying limitations of MSCs and suggest a new guideline for MSC therapy in hopes of improving their therapeutic efficacy.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Translational Research and Molecular Imaging, The Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea ; Laboratory of Immune Regulation, Convergent Research Consortium for Immunologic Disease, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Nayoun
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Institute for Translational Research and Molecular Imaging, The Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea ; Laboratory of Immune Regulation, Convergent Research Consortium for Immunologic Disease, Seoul, Korea ; Catholic Blood and Marrow Transplantation Center, Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Seok-Goo
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Cho
keywords: Clinical trial; Immune modulation; Limitation; Mesenchymal stem cells