Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Jan-Dec:32:9636897231184596.
doi: 10.1177/09636897231184596.

Stem Cells Attenuate the Inflammation Crosstalk Between Ischemic Stroke and Multiple Sclerosis: A Review

Molly Monsour  1 , Jonah Gordon  1 , Gavin Lockard  1 , Cesar V Borlongan  2
Affiliations
Review

Stem Cells Attenuate the Inflammation Crosstalk Between Ischemic Stroke and Multiple Sclerosis: A Review

Molly Monsour et al. Cell Transplant. 2023 Jan-Dec.

Abstract

The immense neuroinflammation induced by multiple sclerosis (MS) promotes a favorable environment for ischemic stroke (IS) development, making IS a deadly complication of MS. The overlapping inflammation in MS and IS is a prelude to the vascular pathology, and an inherent cell death mechanism that exacerbates neurovascular unit (NVU) impairment in the disease progression. Despite this consequence, no therapies focus on reducing IS incidence in patients with MS. To this end, the preclinical and clinical evidence we review here argues for cell-based regenerative medicine that will augment the NVU dysfunction and inflammation to ameliorate IS risk.

Keywords: ischemic stroke; multiple sclerosis; neuroinflammation; stem cells.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: C.V.B. declared leadership position with University of South Florida, patents holder and patent applications on stem cell biology and its therapeutic applications, consultant to a number of stem cell–based companies, and research funding from the NIH. All the other authors declared no potential conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
This figure exemplifies the role of MS-induced neuroinflammation in prompting atherosclerosis and IS via pro-inflammatory immune cell and cytokine infiltration. On the left, MS induces inflammatory cytokines, Th17, Th1, and inflammatory microglia proliferation in the circulation. These mediators induce atherosclerosis and eventual ischemic stroke as shown on the right. The middle panel demonstrates how stem cells can reduce this inflammation by increasing Treg and anti-inflammatory microglial proliferation, ultimately reducing stroke and MS damage. Once MS neuroinflammation is downregulated, the relationship between atherosclerosis, stroke, and MS would be theoretically negligible, as described in the middle panel. MS: multiple sclerosis; IS: ischemic stroke.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Tian Z, Song Y, Yao Y, Guo J, Gong Z, Wang Z. Genetic etiology shared by multiple sclerosis and ischemic stroke. Front Genet. 2020;11:646. doi:10.3389/fgene.2020.00646. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hong Y, Tang HR, Ma M, Chen N, Xie X, He L. Multiple sclerosis and stroke: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Neurol. 2019;19:139. doi:10.1186/s12883-019-1366-7. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lopes Pinheiro MA, Kooij G, Mizee MR, Kamermans A, Enzmann G, Lyck R, Schwaninger M, Engelhardt B, de Vries HE. Immune cell trafficking across the barriers of the central nervous system in multiple sclerosis and stroke. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2016;1862:461–71. doi:10.1016/j.bbadis.2015.10.018. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Schreiner TG, Romanescu C, Popescu BO. The blood-brain barrier—a key player in multiple sclerosis disease mechanisms. Biomolecules. 2022;12:538. doi:10.3390/biom12040538. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Marrie RA, Reider N, Cohen J, Stuve O, Trojano M, Cutter G, Reingold S, Sorensen PS. A systematic review of the incidence and prevalence of cardiac, cerebrovascular, and peripheral vascular disease in multiple sclerosis. Mult Scler. 2015;21:318–31. doi:10.1177/1352458514564485. - DOI - PMC - PubMed