Figure 1.
Efficacy of hypoxic pretreatments of adult SCs in regenerative medicine. Grafted SCs become more resistant to the death stimuli that are present in the injured tissues through ex-vivo hypoxic pretreatments (continuous hypoxia or cyclic hypoxia-anoxia and reoxygeneation) or by administration of CoCl2. Pharmacological agents exerting intracellular key effects of hypoxic preconditioning, such as diazoxide, can also be effective. The most common sensor activated under low oxygen tensions is HIF-1α which increases cell survival by stimulating several pathways, including glycolytic flow, Akt phosphorylation, and miRs upregulation. Transgenic induction of miR-107 and miR-210, which are mainly expressed after hypoxia, also provides protection to SCs against the engraftment injury.