Mesenchymal stem cells inhibiting cancer

Chengdu, China -

The use of mesenchymal stem cells is now a "clinical reality"https://www.stemcellpatents.com/news-show-154, primarily for the treatment of diseases such as multiple sclerosis and other inflammatory conditions. This is due to the known ability of mesenchymal stem cells to differentiate into various tissues, and also to suppress pathological immune responses. Mesenchymal stem cells can directly inhibit activated T cells, or can indirectly inhibit them through the activationn of T regulatory cells (previously called T suppressor cells), which can systemically regulate inflammatory responses.

In a recent study (Lu et al. The growth inhibitory effect of mesenchymal stem cells on tumor cells in vitro and in vivo. Cancer Biol Ther. 2007 Nov 14;7(2)) the ability of mesenchymal stem cells to inhibit tumor cells was demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo.

The researchers demonstrated that mouse bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells:

- Inhibited proliferation of mouse hepatoma (H22) and lymphoma (YAC-1 and EL-4) cells.

- Inhibited proliferation of rat insulinoma (INS-1) cells.

- Suppressed ability of hepatoma to form ascites when injected into mice.

These results are of particular interest since it is possible that the mesenchymal stem cell may have direct communication with tumor stem cells. Given that tumor stem cells are known to be chemoresistant, it makes sense that approaches that induce direct differentiation or mitosis arrest of tumor stem cells may be attractive therapeutic interventions for the future.