Inflammatory bowel disease include Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. These are chronic autoimmune diseases that often affect people of working age, significantly reducing their quality of life. In the last decade, mesenchymal stem cells have been widely used in the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases as part of clinical trials. They are obtained most often from the umbilical cord, placenta, adipose tissue, bone marrow, etc. Mesenchymal stem cells are characterized by an anti-inflammatory and regenerative (restorative) effect, and have been used in the treatment of Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, especially refractory forms, as well as fistulas caused by the pathological process.
In August 2024, the scientific journal Frontiers of Immunology published an article by Xong Hi Lao et al., which sheds light on one more mechanism of the therapeutic effect of mesenchymal stem cells in inflammatory bowel disease – this is ubiquitination. This term refers to the post-translational modification of proteins, which is disturbed in inflammatory bowel disease. It was shown that mesenchymal stem cells directly affect the ubiquitin-proteosome system, which is responsible for the breakdown of proteins, or rather key signaling molecules involved in the development of the inflammatory process. The discovery of these mechanisms increases the potential of mesenchymal stem cells in the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases and further substantiates the indication of cell therapy for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis (source: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2024.1423069/full).
The anti-inflammatory and regenerative properties of mesenchymal stem cells have also been used in the treatment of severe forms of COVID-19. In Ukraine, the Institute of Cell Therapy, Institute of Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases n.a. L.V. Gromashevsky and Kyiv City Clinical Hospital No. 4 have developed and clinically tested a method of treating acute respiratory distress syndrome in COVID-19 using mesenchymal stem cells from the umbilical cord and placenta. Clinical trial NCT04461925 (https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04461925?cond=covid-19&term=placenta%20mesenchymal%20stem%20cells&rank=1) was conducted, which showed that intravenous administration of mesenchymal stem cells from the umbilical cord/placenta provided a reduction in the inflammatory process during the first two weeks and a significant reduction in pulmonary fibrosis in patients with COVID-19. The results of the clinical study were published in the scientific journal “International Journal of Molecular Sciences” (https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/24/5/4435#)
