Roles of Stem Cells in the Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system which is accompanied by demyelination of the nerves, axonal loss, and disability. The availability of multiple diseasemodifying medications with regulatory approval to treat multiple sclerosis illustrates the substantial progress made in treating the disease. However, these drugs are only partially effective in preventing inflammatory tissue damage in the central nervous system and none of them directly promotes repair. The current treatments for MS largely comprise medications that are either immunomodulatory or immunosuppressive and are aimed at reducing the frequency and intensity of relapses. Recent studies have shown that cellular therapies are capable of repairing CNS neurons and can prevent inflammatory damage caused by the disease. 

A comprehensive review study was performed on MS, the etiologies, and treatmentmethods using the keywords including Stem Cells, Multiple Sclerosis, and Oligodendrocyte in valid medical databases, mainly PubMed. Among the collected papers, articles that were most relevant to the purposes of the study were selected and studied.

Cell therapy is considered a promising potential treatment for multiple sclerosis, perhaps particularly for the progressive form of the disease for which there is currently no useful treatment. Stem cells can be differentiated into nerve cells, including oligodendrocytes, in the patient’s body and help repair neuronal myelin. Thus, in the present article, we reviewed a variety of cellular resources and their characteristics for
the treatment of MS.