Inflammatory bowel disease: Moving toward a stem cell-based therapy

Figure 1 Schematic representation of normal and IBD mucosal tissues. In normal conditions the innate and the adaptive immune systems cooperate in order to create a controlled status of inflammation: In IBD the balance is lost.

Figure 2 Contribution of transplanted HSCs and MSCs to the immune compartment and to intestinal lineages. HSCs are able to restore the immune system to a naive state. MSCs contribute via direct differentiation to mesenchymal and non-mesenchymal lineages, exert trophic functions and modulate in a suppressive fashion the immune response.