Background 

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are promising candidates for cell-based therapy to treat several diseases. Up to now, MSCs are used in over 600 ongoing clinical trials (June, 2016) like treating IBD, diabetes, encephalitis, etc. MSCs in current clinical use are isolated from bone marrow, adipose tissue and the umbilical cord. Different from the embryonic stem cells, MSCs have been shown to be highly immunosuppressive. In many studies, MSCs were found to suppress adaptive immune system as well as inherent immune system in multiple inflammatory diseases, which make MSCs a promising tool in treating inflammatory disease.

Despite significant advantages, clinical trials of MSCs have produced mixed results which may significantly impede the advancement of MSC-based therapies. One of the most important reasons is for the inefficient homing ability of MSC that only a few MSC can indeed arrived the inflamed tissue after systematic administration and exert their immunomodulatory function.

Current Design

This summer, next generation of MSCs are coming. We intend to construct a circuit of three plasmids that will be able to reinforce the locating function of MSCs. Previous studies have demonstrated that immune cells depend on chemokine receptors to accomplish directional moving. In our project, we are going to empower MSCs with chemokine receptors in order to ensure its effective homing. At the same time, with the purpose of locating in vivo MSC and assuring their arrival at the inflamed tissue, we will introduce several kinds of positioning system into our system and detect them by various methods.