66
with hematopoietic stem cell therapy and mesenchymal stem cell therapy, significant
improvement in nerve conduction velocities was noted, suggesting that mesenchy-
mal stem cells facilitate the action of hematopoietic stem cells and may differentiate
into Schwann cells or produce the enzyme arylsulfatase themselves [ 55 ].
4.10 Conclusion
Mesenchymal stem cells have the unique ability to differentiate into various cell
lines, selectively home in injured/inflamed tissues, promote growth of endogenous
cells by producing trophic factors, possess anti inflammatory and immune modula-
tory effects and; have found various applications in multiple organ systems. Several
animal models and ongoing human clinical trials have all mostly established the
safety of mesenchymal stem cells, although the long term efficacy remains to be
well established and thus far has only been studied in small groups of human subjects.
Larger multi center randomized controlled studies are needed to validate the results
of smaller studies. Although imaging modalities such as MRI have been described
in evaluating response to musculoskeletal and neurological applications of mesen-
chymal stem cells, further studies to validate the preliminary findings are pending.
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