Marine stem cells: A new approach for human reproductive tissue regeneration

Seventy-five percentage of earth s surface is covered by water and is habitat of countless and diverse resource of marine invertebrates. Such as animals living on land, marine invertebrates’ reproduction, development and regeneration are dependent on their stem cells. Marine invertebrates constitute the largest biodiversity from morphologically simple organisms (e.g., cnidarians, sponges), to the more complex echinoderms, mollusks, protochordates, and crustaceans. They all have marine invertebrate stem cells (MISC) produce a large number of novel bioactive-molecules, many of which are of significant potential interest for human reproductive regeneration. In the current decade, the positive effect of extracts of some marine invertebrates (e.g., sea cucumber) have been studied in mammalian reproduction. On the other hand, marine drugs extracted from marine invertebrates (e.g., sponges, mollusks, soft corals), acting on microfilaments and microtubules, have a wide range of impacts on reproductive events (e.g., sperm maturation and motility, oocyte maturation, fertilization, and early embryo development). MISCs have been detected or cultured in some marine invertebrates (e.g., cnidarians, crustaceans). Regenerative or proliferative effects of activated MISCs have been also shown on the other tissues (e.g., bone, skin). Merging the available evidences can speculatively suggest the MISCs of marine invertebrates can be applied for reproductive organ (e.g., ovary, uterine, cervix, and testis) engineering or tissue (e.g., endometrium, seminiferous tubules) regeneration. By the way limitations such as different factors in MISC culture in comparison with mammalian cell culture and low number of available antibodies for MISC characterization may affect the progress of this approach for future research. In conclusion, large biodiversity of marine invertebrates living in Persian Gulf, Oman Sea, and Caspian Sea open a new window for future studies can be focused on the application of MISCs for reproductive tissue engineering.