HISTOLOGY AND HISTOPATHOLOGY

Cellular and Molecular Biology

 

Review

Current trends in stem cell therapy for improvement of bone quality

Yoichi Yamada1,2, Sayaka Nakamura3, Ophir D. Klein4 and Kenji Ito5

1Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Aichi Medical University School of Medicine, Nagakute, Aichi, Japan, 2Center for Genetic and Regenerative Medicine, Nagoya University School of Medicine, Showa-ku, Nagoya, Japan, 3Department of Biochemistry, School of Dentistry, Aichi-Gakuin University, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Japan, 4Departments of Orofacial Sciences and Pediatrics and Program in Craniofacial and Mesenchymal Biology, University of California, San Francisco, USA and 5Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Hamamatsu Kita Hospital, Higashi-ku, Hamamatsu, Japan

Offprint requests to: Yoichi Yamada, Aichi Medical University School of Medicine, 1-1 Yazakokarimata, Nagakute, Aichi, 480-1195, Japan. e-mail: yyamada@aichi-med-u.ac.jp or yyamada0925@gmail.com


Summary. As the average lifespan of humans continues to increase, improvement in the quality of life for elderly people is important. Among the most severe problems during aging are bone loss-associated diseases such as poor fracture healing and osteoporosis. Therapy-induced bone loss such as bisphosphonate-associated osteonecrosis of the jaw also increases in incidence with age. Most of the current treatment strategies are focused on antiresorptive and bone formation pharmacological agents, but it is hard to obtain appropriate bone augmentation and there are concerns regarding their long-term safety without side effects. Therefore, a novel method for improvement of bone quality is required, and stem cells are of great interest as potential therapeutic tools for diseases that remain without clinically effective therapies. In this review, we describe the concept of stem cell-based therapy and evaluate the current progress of cell therapy for the improvement of bone quality. In addition, we report and discuss a new clinical strategy in which improved bone quality was obtained by applying bone-marrow derived MSCs with platelet rich plasma in clinical therapy. Histol Histopathol 29, 691-697 (2014)

Key words: Improvement of bone quality, Regenerative medicine, Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), Minimal invasiveness, Stem cell therapy

DOI: 10.14670/HH-29.691