MSC Meta Study Shows Safety

A new meta study has analyzed the safety of mesenchymalstromal cells (MSCs) from 1,012 patients in 36 studies from 14 countries around the world with both adults and children and on a wide variety of diseases and conditions. The systematic study used both randomized as well as non-randomized control trials and it appears to show the complete safety of these MSCs, with the most common occurring reaction being transient fever.

The study is titled Safety of Cell Therapy with MesenchymalStromal Cells (SafeCell): A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials and it can be found at this website.

"Our analysis was unable to detect associations between MSC treatment and the development of acute infusional toxicity, organ system complications, infection, death, or malignancy. There was, however, a significant association between MSC administration and transient fever. Our systematic review of non-RCTs supported these results. Six of seven RCTs and all non-RCTs described equal or fewer deaths with MSC treatment compared to control treatment. The completeness of adverse event reporting in the included studies was variable. However, aside from fever, the published current clinical trials suggest that the administration of MSCs is safe."

These cells came from a wide variety of sources, both autologous as well as allogeneic. Sixteen studies used autologousMSCs, five used matched allogeneicMSCs and eight used unmatched allogeneicMSCs and seven of the studies used both matched and unmatched cells.

This is very significant for a number of reasons.  Besides better understanding the mechanisms of action of those MSCs in the body and how they appear to have limited cellular differentiation ability, the meta study shows how these MSCs home to inflammation sites. More and more research is showing how inflammation is at the root of a number of diseases.

Other important findings:

1) The studies using unmatched MSCs supports the contention of a number of researchers that MSCs are "immune-privileged."

2) It appears that the way the MSCs work is through immunomodulatory and paracrine mechanisms.

3) They secrete bioactive molecules which makes them especially effective in treating inflammation based diseases.

4) There was no association between MSCs and tumor formation shown.

5) This is a very exciting meta study that demonstrates what a number of researchers and clinicians have claimed over the past years.

You can read more about stem cells at Stem Cells Consulting.

To your health,

Steve Marshank