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Review
. 2018 Jan 31;9(1):18.
doi: 10.1186/s13287-018-0776-6.

Mesenchymal stem cell-based therapy for radiation-induced lung injury

Tiankai Xu  1 , Yuyu Zhang  1 , Pengyu Chang  1 , Shouliang Gong  1   2 , Lihong Shao  3 , Lihua Dong  4
Affiliations
Review

Mesenchymal stem cell-based therapy for radiation-induced lung injury

Tiankai Xu et al. Stem Cell Res Ther. .

Abstract

Since radiotherapy is widely used in managing thoracic tumors, physicians have begun to realize that radiation-induced lung injury (RILI) seriously limits the effects of radiotherapy. Unfortunately, there are still no effective methods for controlling RILI. Over the last few decades numerous studies have reported the beneficial effects of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) on tissue repair and regeneration. MSCs can not only differentiate into lung alveolar epithelial cells and secrete anti-inflammatory factors, but they also deliver some vehicles for gene therapy in repairing the injured lung, which provides new ideas for managing RILI. Thus, many scientists have attempted to manage RILI using MSC-based therapy. However, as a novel therapy MSCs still face various limitations. Herein, we shed light on the current understanding of MSC-based therapy for RILI, including the feasibility, molecular mechanisms, animal studies, and clinical research of MSC-based therapy for RILI. We also present an overview of RILI and MSCs.

Keywords: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs); Radiation-induced lung injury (RILI); Stem cell therapy.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The mechanisms of radiation-induced lung injury (RILI) and the mechanisms by which mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) alleviate it. BM bone marrow, EMT epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, TGF transforming growth factor
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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