Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cell-Based-Delivery for Clinical Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) represent a heterogeneous subset of cells arising from pericytes, which can be isolated from various adult tissues, such as bone marrow, adipose tissue, the dental pulp, muscle, skin, placenta, and umbilical cord blood. MSCs are able to recognize the signals of tissue damage and to release bioactive molecules capable of modulating the local immune response, by establishing a pro-regenerative microenvironment, stimulating angiogenesis, promoting proliferation of tissue-specific progenitors, and inhibiting cell apoptosis and tissue fibrosis. Furthermore, MSCs are able to recognize and direct themselves towards distant damaged tissues (homing), where they exercise these medicinal activities principally orchestrated by the paracrine secretion of a broad repertoire of growth factors, chemokines, and cytokines.

An important aspect related to the therapeutic potential of MSCs concerns their ability to secrete extracellular vesicles of different sizes, which can act as paracrine mediators, transporting proteins, mRNAs and microRNAs to specific target sites, ensuring a targeted therapeutic approach.

MSC-based delivery represents a promising approach for several clinical applications, ranging from tissue repair to the treatment of pathologies such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, neurological disorders and cancer. For example, MSC-based delivery has become an attractive and advanced scientific research area in the context of cancer therapy. This is mainly due to their marked tropism for tumors, suggesting them as a rational and effective vehicle for drug delivery for both hematological and solid malignancies.

This Special Issue aims to present a collection of high-quality relevant scientific papers to promote discussions and knowledge transfer to the scientific community. Original articles, short communications and review papers concerning MSC-based delivery systems of drugs or genes for different clinical applications, therapeutic potential of extracellular vesicles from MSCs, clinical efficacy of MSC membrane-coated nanoparticles for therapy and pharmacokinetics of MSCs are invited for submission and publication.

Dr. Paola De Luca
Dr. Alessandra Colombini
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). 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.

• mesenchymal stem/stromal cells
• regenerative medicine
• orthopedic
• musculoskeletal field
• orthobiologics
• secretome
• inflammation
• cytokines
• chemokines