The Challenges and Opportunities of Mesenchymal Stromal Cells in Regenerative Medicine
A special issue of Cells (ISSN 2073-4409).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2026 | Viewed by 5
Special Issue Editor
Interests: vascular smooth muscle cells; phenotypic modulation; vascular disease; stem cell differentiation; vascular tissue engineering; regenerative medicine
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The term "mesenchymal stromal cells" has often been used as a synonym for "mesenchymal stem cells", sharing the common abbreviation “MSCs”. However, mesenchymal stromal cells are a broader group of cells, of which mesenchymal stem cells are a subset. The International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy has characterized mesenchymal stromal cells as a bulk population with remarkable secretory, immunomodulatory, and homing properties, while mesenchymal stem cells have been defined as multipotent adherent cells expressing CD73, CD90, and CD105, lacking the expression of hematopoietic and endothelial markers, and capable of differentiating into specific cell types. In addition, the abbreviation "MSCs" has been used to refer to "medicinal signaling cells", emphasizing their similarity to pericytes and thus their role as sentinel cells of the blood-tissue interface, as well as to "multipotent stem cells", i.e., cells capable of differentiating into multiple but limited cell types, which can be not only mesenchymal but also neural or hematopoietic.
Authors contributing to this Special Issue are invited to further clarify the differences or overlaps between the cell groups for which the abbreviation MSCs has been used in the literature for several decades, using not only conventional best practices but also modern methods of single-cell sequencing, mass cytometry, characterization of extracellular vesicles, and/or microRNA. These new findings will further enhance the benefits and reduce the risks of using mesenchymal stromal cells in regenerative medicine, such as cell therapy and tissue engineering.
Dr. Lucie Bacakova
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- mesenchymal stromal cells
- mesenchymal stem cells
- medicinal signaling cells
- multipotent stem cells
- paracrine secretion
- angiogenesis
- immunomodulation
- cell therapy
- cell-free cell-based therapy
- stem cell differentiation
- tissue engineering
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