Abstract
Besides cancer and cardiovascular diseases, lung disorders are a leading cause of morbidity and death worldwide. For many disease conditions no effective and curative treatment options are available. Cell therapies offer a novel therapeutic approach due to their inherent anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic properties. Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSC) are the most studied cell product. Numerous preclinical studies demonstrate an improvement of disease-associated parameters after MSC administration in several lung disorders, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, acute respiratory distress syndrome and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Furthermore, results from clinical studies using MSCs for the treatment of various lung diseases indicate that MSC treatment in these patients is safe. In this review we summarise the results of preclinical and clinical studies that indicate that MSCs are a promising therapeutic approach for the treatment of lung diseases. Nevertheless, further investigations are required.
Abstract
Cell-based therapies for lung diseases are evolving to become viable treatment options for clinical application http://ow.ly/oXe130crWmw
Footnotes
Conflict of interest: Disclosures can be found alongside this article at err.ersjournals.com
Provenance: Commissioned article, peer reviewed.
- Received April 6, 2017.
- Accepted June 8, 2017.
- Copyright ©ERS 2017.
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