Advances in Stem Cell Therapy for Intestinal Diseases: Mechanisms, Perspectives Regarding Clinical Applications, and Challenges

Background Intestinal disease is a common disease, which can cause serious digestion and absorption disorders, endanger the lives of patients and seriously affect the quality of life of people. Finding an effective treatment is a difficult problem at present, and stem cell therapy as a treatment has high application potential in intestinal-related diseases. Purpose This paper mainly summarizes the mechanism, research progress and future development trend of stem cells in the treatment of intestinal diseases in the past decade, hoping to provide a reference for future researchers in the research and application of stem cells and intestinal diseases. Methods Stem cells, inflammatory bowel diseases, Crohn's disease, radiation-induced intestinal injury, radiation enterocolitis, and extracellular vesicles were used as search terms. Relevant references in the past ten years were searched in CNKI journal full-text database, PubMed database, VIP network and Wanfang medical network, and 80 literature studies meeting the requirements were finally included for review. Results This paper summarizes the research and application of stem cells in intestinal diseases from 2012 to 2021, and expounds on the specific mechanism of stem cells in the treatment of intestinal diseases. It has been found that stem cells can treat intestinal injury or inflammation in different ways. Conclusion Future stem cells may also be used to reverse the natural aging of intestinal function, improve intestinal function, and strengthen gastrointestinal function.