Minireviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. May 26, 2018; 10(5): 43-56
Published online May 26, 2018. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v10.i5.43
Stem cells as delivery vehicles for regenerative medicine-challenges and perspectives
Luminita Labusca, Dumitru Daniel Herea, Kaveh Mashayekhi
Luminita Labusca, Orthopedics and Traumatology Clinic, Emergency County Hospital Saint Spiridon Iasi Romania, Iasi 700000, Romania
Luminita Labusca, Dumitru Daniel Herea, Stem Cell Laboratory, National Institute of Research and Development for Technical Physics (NIRDTP), Iasi 700349, Romania
Luminita Labusca, Kaveh Mashayekhi, Systems Bioinformatics and Modelling SBIM, Frankfurt 45367, Germany
Author contributions: Labusca L designed the manuscript and composed the introductory section and the chapter related to stem cell biology; Herea DD composed the chapter related to nanoparticles and their application and created the artistic picture; Mashayiekhi K directed the literature retrieval, contributed to designing the manuscript and critically revised the text.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Luminita Labusca, MD, PhD, Chief Doctor, Senior Scientist, Stem Cell laboratory, National Institute of Research and Development for Technical Physics (NIRDTP), 47 Mangeron Boulevard, Iasi 700349, Romania. llabusca@phys-iasi.ro
Telephone: +40-749-162219
Received: March 27, 2018
Peer-review started: March 28, 2018
First decision: April 9, 2018
Revised: April 26, 2018
Accepted: May 9, 2018
Article in press: May 10, 2018
Published online: May 26, 2018
Processing time: 58 Days and 11.7 Hours
Abstract

The use of stem cells as carriers for therapeutic agents is an appealing modality for targeting tissues or organs of interest. Combined delivery of cells together with various information molecules as therapeutic agents has the potential to enhance, modulate or even initiate local or systemic repair processes, increasing stem cell efficiency for regenerative medicine applications. Stem-cell-mediated delivery of genes, proteins or small molecules takes advantage of the innate capability of stem cells to migrate and home to injury sites. As the native migratory properties are affected by in vitro expansion, the existent methods for enhancing stem cell targeting capabilities (modified culture methods, genetic modification, cell surface engineering) are described. The role of various nanoparticles in equipping stem cells with therapeutic small molecules is revised together with their class-specific advantages and shortcomings. Modalities to circumvent common challenges when designing a stem-cell-mediated targeted delivery system are described as well as future prospects in using this approach for regenerative medicine applications.

Keywords: Stem cells; Delivery agents; Regenerative medicine; Nanoparticles; Targeted delivery

Core tip: The capability of stem cells to mobilize, home and target to inflammatory sites justifies their use as delivery agents for regenerative medicine purposes. Cell and membrane engineering techniques can be used to increase the selective targeting potential of stem cells. Gene therapy and nanoparticle-mediated small-molecule delivery of informational cues have the potential to increase the efficiency of clinically relevant stem-cell-based regenerative therapies.