Review
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World J Stem Cells. Mar 26, 2015; 7(2): 343-351
Published online Mar 26, 2015. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v7.i2.343
Stem cell therapy in inflammatory bowel disease: A promising therapeutic strategy?
Ana I Flores, Gonzalo J Gómez-Gómez, Ángeles Masedo-González, M Pilar Martínez-Montiel
Ana I Flores, Gonzalo J Gómez-Gómez, Ángeles Masedo-González, M Pilar Martínez-Montiel, Servicio de Aparato Digestivo, Hospital 12 de Octubre, Avda. de Córdoba, 28041 Madrid, Spain
Author contributions: All authors contributed to this work.
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: M Pilar Martínez-Montiel, MD, Servicio de Aparato Digestivo, Hospital 12 de Octubre, Avda. de Córdoba, s/n, 28041 Madrid, Spain. pilarmarmon123@telefonica.net
Telephone: +34-91-7792667
Received: July 29, 2014
Peer-review started: July 29, 2014
First decision: August 28, 2014
Revised: October 30, 2014
Accepted: November 7, 2014
Article in press: November 10, 2014
Published online: March 26, 2015
Abstract

Inflammatory bowel diseases are inflammatory, chronic and progressive diseases of the intestinal tract for which no curative treatment is available. Research in other fields with stem cells of different sources and with immunoregulatory cells (regulatory T-lymphocytes and dendritic T-cells) opens up new expectations for their use in these diseases. The goal for stem cell-based therapy is to provide a permanent cure. To achieve this, it will be necessary to obtain a cellular product, original or genetically modified, that has a high migration capacity and homes into the intestine, has high survival after transplantation, regulates the immune reaction while not being visible to the patient’s immune system, and repairs the injured tissue.

Keywords: Mesenchymal stem cell, Hematopoietic stem cell, Inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn’s disease, Ulcerative colitis, Amniotic fluid stem cells, Induced pluripotent stem cells, Intestinal stem cells, Endothelial progenitor cells, Tolerogenic immune cell therapies

Core tip: Inflammatory bowel diseases are inflammatory, chronic and progressive diseases of the intestinal tract. A limited experience is available with hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cell transplantation for the treatment of these conditions. Research is ongoing with other cell lines which have been used in conditions alike to inflammatory bowel disease and which will possibly have a therapeutic role in this condition.