Opinion Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Apr 26, 2023; 15(4): 105-119
Published online Apr 26, 2023. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v15.i4.105
Banking of perinatal mesenchymal stem/stromal cells for stem cell-based personalized medicine over lifetime: Matters arising
Cheng-Hai Li, Jing Zhao, Hong-Yan Zhang, Bin Wang
Cheng-Hai Li, Stem Cell Program of Clinical Research Center, People’s Hospital of Zhengzhou University and Henan Provincial People’s Hospital, Zhengzhou 450003, Henan Province, China
Jing Zhao, Department of Clinical Laboratory, People’s Hospital of Zhengzhou University and Henan Provincial People’s Hospital, Zhengzhou 450003, Henan Province, China
Hong-Yan Zhang, Department of Pharmacy, Fuwai Central China Cardiovascular Hospital, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan Province, China
Bin Wang, Department of Neurosurgery, People’s Hospital of Zhengzhou University and Henan Provincial People’s Hospital, Zhengzhou 450003, Henan Province, China
Author contributions: Li CH, Zhao J, and Zhang HY contributed equally to this work; and all authors contributed to conception, design, data analysis and interpretation, drafting, critical revision, and approval of the final version of the article.
Supported by the Henan Province Science and Technique Bureau R&D Project, No. 222102310228.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Bin Wang, BMed, Neurosurgeon, Department of Neurosurgery, People’s Hospital of Zhengzhou University and Henan Provincial People’s Hospital, No. 7 Weiwu Road, Zhengzhou 450003, Henan Province, China. bin.wang201166@hotmail.com
Received: December 6, 2022
Peer-review started: December 6, 2022
First decision: December 25, 2022
Revised: January 7, 2023
Accepted: March 22, 2023
Article in press: March 22, 2023
Published online: April 26, 2023
Abstract

Mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs) are currently applied in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. Numerous clinical studies have indicated that MSCs from different tissue sources can provide therapeutic benefits for patients. MSCs derived from either human adult or perinatal tissues have their own unique advantages in their medical practices. Usually, clinical studies are conducted by using of cultured MSCs after thawing or short-term cryopreserved-then-thawed MSCs prior to administration for the treatment of a wide range of diseases and medical disorders. Currently, cryogenically banking perinatal MSCs for potential personalized medicine for later use in lifetime has raised growing interest in China as well as in many other countries. Meanwhile, this has led to questions regarding the availability, stability, consistency, multipotency, and therapeutic efficiency of the potential perinatal MSC-derived therapeutic products after long-term cryostorage. This opinion review does not minimize any therapeutic benefit of perinatal MSCs in many diseases after short-term cryopreservation. This article mainly describes what is known about banking perinatal MSCs in China and, importantly, it is to recognize the limitation and uncertainty of the perinatal MSCs stored in cryobanks for stem cell medical treatments in whole life. This article also provides several recommendations for banking of perinatal MSCs for potentially future personalized medicine, albeit it is impossible to anticipate whether the donor will benefit from banked MSCs during her/his lifetime.

Keywords: Mesenchymal stromal/stem cells, Adult mesenchymal stromal/stem cells, Perinatal mesenchymal stromal/stem cells, Perinatal tissue, Stem cell bank, Personalized medicine

Core Tip: This article reviews the current research related to the potential use of banked perinatal mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs) for future personalized medicine. This article also discusses the matters needing attention for cryopreservation of perinatal MSCs that are possible to be banked and stored over many years. Acknowledging the limitations and uncertainties of long-term cryopreservation of perinatal MSCs, several key recommendations need to be addressed in this article for future stem cell-based medical treatments.