Application of mesenchymal stem cell in the treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome

Abstract

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is severe acute respiratory failure caused by severe infections, trauma or others, and with high mortality rate. The pathogenesis of ARDS is complicated, but the uncontrolled excessive inflammatory response is identified as one of the main causes. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have the ability to regulate immune responses, and many researches showed that MSCs had potential therapeutic effects on autoimmune diseases and graft versus host diseases. Recently, basic researches showed that MSCs could treat ARDS and many scientists paid attention to the therapeutic use of MSC in the treatment of ARDS. This paper summarized the basic and clinical results obtained in application of MSC in treatment of ARDS, and discussed the problems needed to be resolved in the further studies in order to provide new ideas for clinical treatment of ARDS.