Modulation of Senescence and Differentiation in Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells

A special issue of Cells (ISSN 2073-4409). This special issue belongs to the section "Stem Cells".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 1964

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences (DIMEC), Unit of Histology, Embryology and Applied Biology, University of Bologna, Via Belmeloro 8, 40126 Bologna, Italy
Interests: human mesenchymal stem cells; cell senescence; cell biology; cell differentiation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine (DIMES), Unit of Histology, Embryology and Applied Biology, University of Bologna, Via Belmeloro 8, 40126 Bologna, BO, Italy
Interests: human mesenchymal stem cells; cell senescence; cell biology; cell differentiation; use of chemical (natural or synthetic molecules) od physical stimuli to modulate the stemness, the proliferation, differentiation and senescence of human stem cells from adult and perinatal tissues; the relationship between cytoskeleton alteration and morpho-functional properties of human stem cells from adult and perinatal tissues; strategies to induce cardiomyocytes to re-enter the cell cycle; gender differences in transcriptome and cell senescence in human stem cells; theoretic biology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) are adult stem cells used in regenerative medicine to treat various pathologies due to their self-renewal ability and multilineage differentiation. However, MSCs undergo cellular senescence during their in vitro expansion, and they may become senescent in vivo due to the influence of multiple molecular, cellular, and environmental interactions. Many studies have been carried out to investigate the biological properties of MSCs and the possibility of modulating their behaviour pre- and post-transplantation. Only a few have successfully managed to reach clinical availability, implying that we probably do not yet have a full understanding of the biology of MSCs.

For this Special Issue, we invite authors/experts to submit high-quality original research articles that further expand our knowledge of and provide us with insights into MSCs. We are particularly interested in studies deepening our understanding of senescence and differentiation in tissue-specific MSCs, as well as those exploring the modulation of these processes through natural and synthetic molecules with the aim of improving MSC potential in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Dr. Federica Facchin
Dr. Silvia Canaider
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • tissue-specific mesenchymal stem cells
  • cell senescence
  • cell differentiation
  • natural and synthetic molecules
  • tissue engineering
  • regenerative medicine

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

27 pages, 7998 KB  
Article
Tert-Butyl Hydroperoxide in Human Adult Mesenchymal Stem Cells Isolated from Dermis: A Stress-Induced Premature Senescence Model
by Luca Pampanella, Giovannamaria Petrocelli, Provvidenza Maria Abruzzo, Riccardo Tassinari, Beatrice Bassoli, Rossella Sgarzani, Margherita Maioli, Carlo Ventura, Silvia Canaider and Federica Facchin
Cells 2025, 14(19), 1563; https://doi.org/10.3390/cells14191563 - 8 Oct 2025
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Abstract
Stem cell (SC)-based therapy exploits the ability of cells to migrate to damaged tissues and repair them. In this context, there is a strong interest in the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), multipotent SCs that are easy to obtain and are able [...] Read more.
Stem cell (SC)-based therapy exploits the ability of cells to migrate to damaged tissues and repair them. In this context, there is a strong interest in the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), multipotent SCs that are easy to obtain and are able to differentiate into various cell lineages. However, MSCs undergo cellular senescence during in vitro expansion, and may also become senescent in vivo, influenced by multiple molecular, cellular, and environmental interactions. Therefore, the development of in vitro cell models is crucial to study the mechanisms underlying senescence in MSCs. This study aimed to investigate the effects of tert-butyl hydroperoxide (t-BHP) as a senescence inducer in human dermal MSCs (hDMSCs), a promising tool for tissue repair. t-BHP induced a pro-senescent effect on hDMSCs greater than hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), as evidenced by ROS production, DNA damage, cell cycle arrest, inhibition of cell proliferation, changes in cellular and nuclear morphology, and cytoskeletal reorganization, as well as the increase in other senescence markers, including senescence-associated β-galactosidase (SA-β-Gal)-positive cells, and senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). These results indicate that t-BHP could be a promising compound for inducing stress-induced premature senescence (SIPS) in hDMSCs, providing a valuable tool to investigate this process and evaluate the efficacy of senolytic compounds. Full article
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