Rheumatoid arthritis (RA)
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the autoimmune inflammatory diseases of the joints
presented with an imbalance of both the innate and adaptive immune systems. This disease
leads to cartilage and bone degradations, causing pain and stiffness and may occur in other
sites including tendon sheaths and bursae.
Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) participate in cartilage regeneration after implantation
into the injury site and differentiate into chondrocytes. Moreover, MSC therapy reduces
pathogenic T cell subsets such as Th1/Th17 cells in the collagen-induced arthritis (CIA)
model. Studies showed that MSCs play an important role in inducing apoptosis of activated
T cells via the Fas ligand (FasL)/Fas signaling pathway in arthritis disease. Also, these cells
promote immune modulation in RA by suppressing the expression of pro-inflammatory
cytokines such as interferon gamma (IFN-γ), TNF.
A meta-analysis study compared the effects of MSCs derived from different tissue sources
showing that human umbilical cord-MSCs have better treatment effects on RA compared
with stem cells from other origins, such as Bone Marrow.
