Implantation of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells for ischemic stroke: perspectives and challenges

Abstract

Ischemic stroke is a focal cerebral insult that often leads to many adverse neurological complications severely affecting the quality of life. The prevalence of stroke is increasing throughout the world, while the efficacy of current pharmacological therapies remains unclear. As a neuroregenerative therapy, the implantation of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (hUC-MSCs) has shown great possibility to restore function after stroke. This review article provides an update role of hUC-MSCs implantation in the treatment of ischemic stroke. With the unique “immunosuppressive and immunoprivilege” property, hUC-MSCs are advised to be an important candidate for allogeneic cell treatment. Nevertheless, most of the treatments are still at primary stage and not clinically feasible at the current time. Several uncertain problems, such as culture conditions, allograft rejection, and potential tumorigenicity, are the choke points in this cellular therapy. More preclinical researches and clinical studies are needed before hUC-MSCs implantation can be used as a routinely applied clinical therapy.