Circulating mesenchymal stem cells and their clinical implications

Circulating mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is a new cell source for tissue regeneration and tissue engineering. The characteristics of circulating MSCs are similar to those of bone marrow-derived MSCs (BM-MSCs), but they exist at a very low level in healthy individuals. It has been demonstrated that MSCs are able to migrate to the sites of injury and that they have some distinct genetic profiles compared to BM-MSCs. The current review summaries the basic knowledge of circulating MSCs and their potential clinical applications, such as mobilizing the BM-MSCs into circulation for therapy. The application of MSCs to cure a broad spectrum of diseases is promising, such as spinal cord injury, cardiovascular repair, bone and cartilage repair. The current review also discusses the issues of using of allogeneic MSCs for clinical therapy. Copyright (C) 2014, The Authors. Published by Elsevier (Singapore) Pte Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license