Banking of perinatal mesenchymal stem/stromal cells for stem cell-based personalized medicine over lifetime: Matters arising

Mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs) are currently applied in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. Numerous clinical studies have indicated that MSCs from different tissue sources can provide therapeutic benefits for patients. MSCs derived from either human adult or perinatal tissues have their own unique advantages in their medical practices. Usually, clinical studies are conducted by using of cultured MSCs after thawing or short-term cryopreserved-then-thawed MSCs prior to administration for the treatment of a wide range of diseases and medical disorders. Currently, cryogenically banking perinatal MSCs for potential personalized medicine for later use in lifetime has raised growing interest in China as well as in many other countries. Meanwhile, this has led to questions regarding the availability, stability, consistency, multipotency, and therapeutic efficiency of the potential perinatal MSC-derived therapeutic products after long-term cryostorage. This opinion review does not minimize any therapeutic benefit of perinatal MSCs in many diseases after short-term cryopreservation. This article mainly describes what is known about banking perinatal MSCs in China and, importantly, it is to recognize the limitation and uncertainty of the perinatal MSCs stored in cryobanks for stem cell medical treatments in whole life. This article also provides several recommendations for banking of perinatal MSCs for potentially future personalized medicine, albeit it is impossible to anticipate whether the donor will benefit from banked MSCs during her/his lifetime.

Key Words: Mesenchymal stromal/stem cells, Adult mesenchymal stromal/stem cells, Perinatal mesenchymal stromal/stem cells, Perinatal tissue, Stem cell bank, Personalized medicine

Core Tip: This article reviews the current research related to the potential use of banked perinatal mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs) for future personalized medicine. This article also discusses the matters needing attention for cryopreservation of perinatal MSCs that are possible to be banked and stored over many years. Acknowledging the limitations and uncertainties of long-term cryopreservation of perinatal MSCs, several key recommendations need to be addressed in this article for future stem cell-based medical treatments.

• Citation: Li CH, Zhao J, Zhang HY, Wang B. Banking of perinatal mesenchymal stem/stromal cells for stem cell-based personalized medicine over lifetime: Matters arising. World J Stem Cells 2023; 15(4): 105-119
• URL: https://www.wjgnet.com/1948-0210/full/v15/i4/105.htm
• DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4252/wjsc.v15.i4.105