Perspective stem cell therapy in digestive disease

IntroductionDigestive system encompasses a broad spectrum of different pathogeneses (inflammatory, ischemic, neoplastic, and functional deficit). The management of these diseases is often challenging. Stem cell (SC) therapy has yielded some promising results. Stem cells may become suitable for cell replacement and tissue engineering in digestive disease.MethodsWe performed this systematic review of literature with related keywords about Digestive system and stem cell in springer, PubMed, Scopus and Google scholar to gather information in articles published since 2010 to now and summarized hear.ResultsStem cells are self-renewing cells and differentiated into multiple cell types for repairing. These cells can migrate to injured and inflamed tissues and be homing there; furthermore stem cells, especially mesenchymal stem cells can suppress immune system such as inflammation. All those characteristics might be useful for the treatment of the digestive tract diseases which are complex. Stem cells can be obtained from various sources, including embryos, fetal tissues, umbilical cord blood, and also terminally differentiated organs especially digestive system. For exampleintestinal stem cells culture and expansion should be considered when stem cell-based therapy is a treatment option for intestinal disorders.ConclusionThe preliminary results confirmed that stem cell therapy could become a promising alternative treatment for refractory digestive disease in the near future. In some conditions such as liver failure, pancreatitis and inflammatory intestinal disease stem cell therapy could be a choice so intestinal stem cells culture could be suitable source for stem cell-based therapy for some gastrointestinal tract diseases.

Keywords:

Intestinal stem cell , Culture , Regenerative medicine , Digestive tract disease