Adult Stem Cells Based Therapies in Veterinary Medicine

Research into adult mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and their therapeutic potential for treating various diseases is nowadays on the rise, not only in human, but also in veterinary medicine. MSCs are easy to collect from most tissues and relatively safe with no ethical concerns. They can be used in veterinary medicine as autologous or allogenic cell-based therapies for orthopaedic injuries, cardiovascular, muscular and neurodegenerative disorders and wound healing. The therapeutic action of MSCs lies either in their differentiation towards cells which need to be replaced, or in their immunomodulatory and paracrine effects through which they support recovery of various tissues. Regarding these pro-regenerative properties considerable attention has to be paid to proper matching of MSC sources with respect to the nature of the diseases needing to be cured. Overall data indicate that particularly the umbilical cord MSC (UC MSC) therapy which involves the most primitive MSCs may bring considerable benefits to patients with a wide range of diseases. This review describes the pro-regenerative potential of MSCs with the main focus on advances in UC MSCs based therapy in veterinary medicine.