Mesenchymal stem cells - From biology to clinical application

Mesenchymal stem cells exhibit multilineage differentiation potential and support endogenous tissue repair and haematopoiesis. In addition, they have been shown to inhibit proliferation and effector functions of various immune cells. Based on these properties, mesenchymal stem cells are currently under intensive preclinical and clinical investigation in different therapeutic applications. First promising data in children have been reported from the use of mesenchymal stem cells in steroid-refractory acute graft-versus-host disease following allogeneic stem cell transplantation and in the treatment of avascular osteonecrosis after cancer chemotherapy. If mesenchymal stem cells prove to be clinically efficacious in prospective clinical trials with regard to immunosuppression and support of endogenous tissue repair, they will represent a promising novel treatment option for various fields of application, including (but not limited to) paediatric autoimmune diseases, thus reaching far beyond the reported clinical experience in haemato-oncology.