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/
World J Stem Cells. Dec 26, 2019; 11(12): 1084-1103 Published online Dec 26, 2019. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v11.i12.1084
Small molecules for mesenchymal stem cell fate determination
Yu-Hao Cheng, Jing-Cheng Dong, Qin Bian
Yu-Hao Cheng, Institute for Cell Engineering, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, United States
Jing-Cheng Dong, Qin Bian, Department of Integrative Medicine, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200040, China
Author contributions: Cheng YH wrote the manuscript; Dong JC and Bian Q edited the manuscript and provided feedback.
Supported bythe National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81573992.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author has no conflict of interest to declare.
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/
Received: March 26, 2019 Peer-review started: March 28, 2019 First decision: April 15, 2019 Revised: September 13, 2019 Accepted: October 14, 2019 Article in press: October 14, 2019 Published online: December 26, 2019
Core Tip
Core tip: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), also called MSCs, are adult stem cells with multilineage differentiation potential. They serve crucial physiological roles, regulating the bone marrow microenvironment and adipose tissue remodeling in vivo. A complex regulatory network and signaling pathways are involved in governing MSC fate commitment. Much progress has been made in recent years in discovering small molecules and their underlying mechanisms that control the cell fate of MSCs. In this review, we summarize recent findings in applying small molecules to the trilineage cell fate commitment of MSCs, highlighting the underlying mechanisms and the current clinical trials. The small molecules for MSC fate determination offer substantial insights into bone marrow and adipose tissue homeostasis and therapeutic strategies for MSC-related diseases.
