Pre-conditioned mesenchymal stem cells: a better way for cell-based therapy

Ischemic heart disease is the major cause of death globally, and a recently developed stem cell transplantation is a promising therapy for myocardial infarction. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) exist in a wide range of tissues, and their differentiation potential and immunoregulatory capacity make them a more optimal candidate for regenerative medicine. However, the poor survival and low differentiation efficiency of the donor cells in the infarcted myocardium challenged therapeutic efficacy of MSC transplantation. To this end, many researchers have focused on improving the microenvironments of MSCs before and after transplantation and on trying to figure out the mechanisms. A recent study by Boopathy and colleagues reported the pro-cardiovascular differentiation effect of oxidative stress on cultured MSCs and the underlying signal pathways, leading to the notion that MSCs pre-conditioned with oxidative reagents promote cardiac differentiation efficiency of MSCs and may result in better clinical effect for ischemic heart diseases.