Development of Muse cell therapy for ischemic stroke

Abstract

Cerebral infarction accounts for~60% of the total stroke, and causes 73,000 deaths every year, total number of patients is 1.8 million, and annual medical expenses exceeds 1 trillion yen in Japan. The number of patients is increasing and cerebral infarction became a serious problem from the viewpoint of the national medical economy. Even with the current sophisticated treatments including thrombolysis and thrombectomy, more than half patients get disabled. Therefore, it is imperative to develop a new treatment to enhance recovery and restore the lost neurological functions. Multilineage-differentiating stress-enduring (Muse) cells are endogenous stem cells with pluripotency, collectable as pluripotent surface marker, SSEA-3, from various kinds of sources such as the bone marrow, adipose tissue and dermis, as well as from commercially released cultured fibroblasts. After transplantation, Muse cells recognize the injured site through their specific receptor for damage signal, home preferentially into the tissue by intravenous injection and spontaneously differentiate into tissue-compatible cells to replace the lost cells, and repair the tissue, delivering functional and structural regeneration. Based on these unique properties, the simple strategy; collect Muse cells by SSEA-3, expand them and treat patients by systemic administration is available. In this report, we describe current status of stem cell therapy in ischemic stroke, and the development of new therapies using Muse cells.