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World J Stem Cells. Jun 26, 2021; 13(6): 632-644
Published online Jun 26, 2021. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v13.i6.632
Potential therapeutic applications of mesenchymal stem cells for the treatment of eye diseases
Giuliana Mannino, Cristina Russo, Anna Longo, Carmelina Daniela Anfuso, Gabriella Lupo, Debora Lo Furno, Rosario Giuffrida, Giovanni Giurdanella
Giuliana Mannino, Cristina Russo, Anna Longo, Carmelina Daniela Anfuso, Gabriella Lupo, Debora Lo Furno, Rosario Giuffrida, Giovanni Giurdanella, Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Catania, Catania 95123, Italy
Author contributions: Mannino G, Lo Furno D and Giurdanella G conceived the project and wrote the paper; all authors contributed to collect literature data, reviewed the manuscript and approved the version to be published.
Supported by the University of Catania, Italy, “Piano Triennale per la Ricerca 2020-2022–Grant PIACERI, Project NanoRet”.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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/
Corresponding author: Debora Lo Furno, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Catania, Universita' Square 2, Catania 95125, Italy. lofurno@unict.it
Received: February 27, 2021
Peer-review started: February 27, 2021
First decision: May 5, 2021
Revised: May 7, 2021
Accepted: June 4, 2021
Article in press: June 4, 2021
Published online: June 26, 2021
Processing time: 118 Days and 19.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Stem cell-based treatments have been extensively explored in the last few decades to develop therapeutic strategies. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) offer several advantages, such as the absence of ethical concerns, easy harvesting, low immunogenicity and reduced tumorigenesis risks. MSC-based therapeutic approaches have been designed for the treatment of various ocular diseases, such as diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and retinitis pigmentosa. In a large number of investigations, positive results have been obtained by in vitro experiments and in animal models. Many clinical trials have already been carried out and, although some adverse effects have been described, promising outcomes are reported.