Great progress has been made in the therapeutic strategies of multiple diseases that lack curative treatments with the transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), such as in onco-hematological diseases, myocardial infarction (MI), cerebrovascular diseases, degenerative diseases of the nervous system (multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease), and diseases of the immune system, among others. Stem cells (SC) participate in the biological processes of tissue regeneration and repair through cell replication. Recently, the beneficial therapeutic effects of SCs that are generated by the release of proteins with paracrine actions and not by cell differentiation are more well known, and 80% of the therapeutic effect of SC is attributed to paracrine actions. The MSCs release large amounts of proteins and growth factors (GF), nucleic acids, proteasomes, exosomes, and microRNA, and membrane vesicles known as the secretome are released into the extracellular space, regulating multiple biological processes. Currently, the therapeutic strategies in tissue engineering (TE) and regenerative medicine (RM) are focused on the management of products derived from cells that act, both locally and remotely, in the affected tissue or organ, achieving regenerative actions. The application of new knowledge of the secretome initiates a change in the paradigm of regenerative therapy by knowing more about and using cell products derived from cells as a “factory” for biological drugs.
Part of the book: Stromal Cells