Mesenchymal stem cell transplantation for infertility treatment: A review

Abstract

Infertility is a global disorder is resulted from factors related to men or women and affects not only the individual, but also the family and society. Recently, stem cell-based therapy, known as regenerative medicine, uses stem cells or their derivatives to treat diseases, promising new ways to treat infertility. Several in vitro studies as well as studies on animal models, confirm the role of Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), a kind of multipotent stem cells, in the recovery of folliculogenesis and spermatogenesis. MSCs play the role of therapeutic effect in infertility from two basic aspects including regenerative medicin through differentiation and paracrine pathway via participating in cell homing, immune regulation, and the secretion of active factors and exosomes. Furthermore, there are fewer ethical concerns about using MSCs compared to other source of stem cells like embryonic stem cells. Here we discuss therapeutic approaches of different sources of MSC to restore fertility, then the basic aspects related to their paracrine effects will be described in detail. Finally, methods of MSCs delivery in clinical trials for treatment of infertility-related disorders will be mentioned. But before all these, first we will talk about pros and cons of MSC therapy.