Fig. 2.

MSCs travel or “home” to distant sites of tissue injury where they exert their paracrine effects namely, the stimulation of angiogenesis, protection of other cells from apoptosis, recruitment of host MSCs or other progenitor cells and stimulation of their proliferation and differentiation. The immunomodulatory effects of MSC consist of inhibiting the proliferation and activity of neutrophils, NK cells, B cells, and T cells, preventing the maturation of monocytes into dendritic cells, suppressing plasma cell immunoglobulin production but stimulating proliferation of regulatory T cells. MSCs have the potential to differentiate into multiple cell types and transfer vesicles containing mRNA, miRNA, proteins, and perhaps mitochondria to the host cells [98].