Advances In The Treatment Of Asthma With Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Bronchial asthma is traditionally defined as a chronic disease with allergic disorder and persistent inflammation which results in generalized airway hyperresponsiveness and reversible obstruction of airflow. Due to the fact that the morbidity and mortality of asthma are still on the rise worldwide at present and the current therapy led by inhaled corticosteroids plus long-term beta2agonist didn’t achieve the ideal control of asthma and reverse the pathological changes, it’s emergent to seek new therapeutic tactics on asthma. Having played an importmant role in immunomodulation, mesenchymal stem cells also turn out to decrease airway inflammatory response as well as immune disorder in asthma, leading a new way on the treatment of this allergic disease.Mesenchymal stem cells are multipotent cells derived from early-developed mesoderm with high self-renew and multiplex differentiation ability. The wide derivation of mesenchymal stem cells, their relative ease of isolation and good immunological tolerance make them attractive therapeutic candidates for diseases in cardiovascular system, bone tissue engineering, liver, neurological system and autoimmune fields, et al. They’re also well demonstrated in the treatment on respiratory diseases such as acute lung injury caused by various reasons, pulmonary interstitial fibrosis, pulmonary hypertension, chronic obstructive lung diseases as well as bronchial asthma.Studies indicated that mesenchymal stem cells played a role in the treatment of asthma through a potential mechanism by which they engraft and differentiate into pulmonary epithelium and reduce allergic airway inflammation and airway remolding. Besides, they can also improve the condition of Th1/Th2disorder and upregulate the function of CD4+CD25+regulatory T cells, leading to the improvement of asthma. Mesenchymal stem cells also function through a possible mechanism of cell-cell contact or secretion of soluble cellular factors. However, researches concerning the therapy of asthma by this new method are still on animals and further studies are needed to better understand the specific mechanism and the safety and potential efficacy in clinical patients.