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

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Immunology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 October 2024 | Viewed by 1195

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
The Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science of St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5B 1T8, Canada
Interests: stem cells (and MSCs, in particular); mitochondria; macrophages; brain and lung injury; sepsis; ischemia-reperfusion; TGFβ pathways; translational research and clinical studies
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Special Issue Information

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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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.

Keywords

  • MSC homing
  • macrophages
  • lung injury
  • inflammation
  • sepsis
  • COVID-19
  • heart
  • liver
  • cell therapy

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

24 pages, 9517 KiB  
Article
Senescence-Associated Alterations in Matrisome of Mesenchymal Stem Cells
by Diana Matveeva, Daria Kashirina, Mariia Ezdakova, Irina Larina, Ludmila Buravkova and Andrey Ratushnyy
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25(10), 5332; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25105332 - 14 May 2024
Viewed by 787
Abstract
The process of aging is intimately linked to alterations at the tissue and cellular levels. Currently, the role of senescent cells in the tissue microenvironment is still being investigated. Despite common characteristics, different cell populations undergo distinctive morphofunctional changes during senescence. Mesenchymal stem [...] Read more.
The process of aging is intimately linked to alterations at the tissue and cellular levels. Currently, the role of senescent cells in the tissue microenvironment is still being investigated. Despite common characteristics, different cell populations undergo distinctive morphofunctional changes during senescence. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) play a pivotal role in maintaining tissue homeostasis. A multitude of studies have examined alterations in the cytokine profile that determine their regulatory function. The extracellular matrix (ECM) of MSCs is a less studied aspect of their biology. It has been shown to modulate the activity of neighboring cells. Therefore, investigating age-related changes in the MSC matrisome is crucial for understanding the mechanisms of tissue niche ageing. This study conducted a broad proteomic analysis of the matrisome of separated fractions of senescent MSCs, including the ECM, conditioned medium (CM), and cell lysate. This is the first time such an analysis has been conducted. It has been established that there is a shift in production towards regulatory molecules and a significant downregulation of the main structural and adhesion proteins of the ECM, particularly collagens, fibulins, and fibrilins. Additionally, a decrease in the levels of cathepsins, galectins, S100 proteins, and other proteins with cytoprotective, anti-inflammatory, and antifibrotic properties has been observed. However, the level of inflammatory proteins and regulators of profibrotic pathways increases. Additionally, there is an upregulation of proteins that can directly cause prosenescent effects on microenvironmental cells (SERPINE1, THBS1, and GDF15). These changes confirm that senescent MSCs can have a negative impact on other cells in the tissue niche, not only through cytokine signals but also through the remodeled ECM. Full article
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