Abstract

Translational Medicine - Clinical Concerns re Expanding & Banking MSCs

Eugen Molodysky, Clinical Associate Professor for Primary Care, Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney

Stem cell-based therapies have proliferated globally in recent years with the US leading the world in total number of clinics, but Australia leading the US with the number of clinics per capita.
 
As stem cell therapies are being sort out for a growing range of applications, both clinical and healthy aging, clinicians are increasingly faced with the decision, as to whether a patient should proceed with a stem cell treatment. This is at a time when there are few, if any, evidence-based guidelines, as to when and whether stem cell therapy is a suitable option under a given set of conditions.
 
This paper seeks to review our current understanding of the MSC life cycle journeys; from the in vivo donor environment (first life), to the ex vivo culture environment (second life), and re-entry to the in vivo host environment (third life). This paper focuses both on the attendant risks of both expansion and administration of MSCs, by identifying morphological and genomic changes of the Second Life, and introducing a potential role for NAD+ and NAD+ - raising compounds during the MSC journey.