Mesenchymal Stromal and Immune Cells’ Involvement in Human Diseases and Their Treatment

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce this Special Issue on “Mesenchymal Stromal and Immune Cells’ Involvement in Human Diseases and Their Treatment”. Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are multipotent cells that have demonstrated promise in various preclinical disease models, including lung injury, sepsis, pneumonia, and cardiovascular diseases. MSCs are also being tested in clinical trials in critically ill patients with sepsis, in the prevention of graft vs. host diseases, acute lung injury, COVID-19 pneumonia, liver cirrhosis, cancer, wound healing problems, etc. Despite extensive research in the field of MSCs, our understanding of their mechanisms of action is incomplete; this Special Issue will advance our understanding in this important research field.

It has been recognized that the interplay between MSCs and immune cells represents one of the key mechanisms by which MSCs exert their therapeutic benefits. MSC interactions include, but are not limited to, monocytes/macrophages, dendritic cells, and T and B cells (especially T and B regulatory cells). MSCs also have the potential to mitigate abnormal autoinflammation in the diseased microenvironment. Recent preclinical studies and clinical trials have demonstrated that the exploration of the mechanisms of MSC–immune cell interplay has tremendous potential in optimizing MSCs’ therapeutic effects.

Therefore, the main scope of this Special Issue is to highlight the current state of knowledge about the molecular mechanisms by which MSCs act in health and disease, especially their modulation of host immune and inflammatory responses. This issue is intended to give further insights into MSCs’ potent paracrine properties, their interaction with the environment, and their involvement in tissue repair, at both local and systemic levels.

We welcome original research and up-to-date review papers. Although, usually, pure clinical research or model studies, survey studies, and correlation research papers would fall outside of the scope of IJMS, we welcome clinical and model submissions featuring biomolecular experiments for this Special Issue.

Dr. Mirjana Jerkić
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.