Even after the approval of multiple new drugs for ulcerative colitis (UC), up to 30% of UC patients still require major abdominopelvic surgery to remove the colon and rectum for medically refractory disease. That is why the development of new and better treatment strategies has been under investigation. The use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) […]
Despite recent progress in medical and endovascular therapy of patients with critical limb ischemia (CLI), the prognosis of patients with no option for revascularization remains poor. Most of the cases end up in amputation (40%) and even death (20%) within 6 months. Trials analyzing the effect of growth factors such as vascular endothelial growth factor […]
Knee osteoarthritis is a chronic progressive disease affecting more than 20% of people older than 45 years, involving progressive degeneration of the articular cartilage and subchondral bone, often accompanied by synovitis. Different treatments have been used over the years, including conservative therapies such as anti-inflammatory drugs, physical therapy and joint injections (i.e. steroids, hyaluronic acid), […]
Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is an autoimmune disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks and destroys pancreatic β cells. While insulin replacement represents the current therapy for T1DM, it hardly controls diabetes, nor does it necessarily prevent the possibility of the disease’s devastating long-term complications, which can seriously affect every body organ. The […]
Cerebral palsy (CP) is a heterogeneous group of conditions that results in permanent, non-progressive motor disability. It may be due to perinatal hypoxic insults, developmental brain abnormalities, genetic conditions, or traumatic or infectious causes. It is estimated that about 2 per 1,000 babies are born each year with cerebral palsy. Improvements in neonatal care had […]
Erectile dysfunction (ED) is one of the most common male sexual dysfunction diseases, with 150 million men suffering from varied degrees of ED globally. It is also one of the major complications in men with diabetes mellitus (DM). The incidence in patients with diabetes is up to 75%. Men with DM tend to suffer from […]
Regenerative medicine has yet to designate biomarkers that can identify patients likely to respond to a stem cell therapy based on their expression of a clinical or molecular profile congruent with the therapeutic mechanism-of-action (MOA) of the stem cell for that condition, while withholding treatment from likely non-responders. Richard E. Hartman, et al. addressed that […]
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), airway obstruction, and remodeling. Allergic asthma is characterized by T helper 2 (Th2) inflammation, which usually responds well to inhaled corticosteroids. In some cases, patients develop severe asthma refractory to high-dose inhaled corticosteroids which shows a need for better and alternative treatment methods. The […]
What is Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension? Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) is characterized by progressive, obliterative remodeling of pulmonary arterioles, pre-capillary vessel loss, right heart failure and death. The pathobiology of pulmonary vascular disease (PVD) and PAH is complex, multifactorial and driven by inflammation and metabolic dysfunction. Despite improvements in pharmacotherapy for PAH, advanced PAH is still […]
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease characterized by degeneration and death of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord, and results in progressive muscle weakness and eventually, respiratory failure and death. The use of stem cells has been widely studied for multiple health conditions, including ALS. Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells […]