Abstract
In the era of growing interest in stem cells, the availability of donors for transplantation has become a problem. The isolation of embryonic and fetal cells raises ethical controversies, and the number of adult donors is deficient. Stem cells isolated from deceased donors, known as cadaveric stem cells (CaSCs), may alleviate this problem. So far, it was possible to isolate from deceased donors mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), adipose delivered stem cells (ADSCs), neural stem cells (NSCs), retinal progenitor cells (RPCs), induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), and hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Recent studies have shown that it is possible to collect and use CaSCs from cadavers, even these with an extended postmortem interval (PMI) provided proper storage conditions (like cadaver heparinization or liquid nitrogen storage) are maintained. The presented review summarizes the latest research on CaSCs and their current therapeutic applications. It describes the developments in thanatotranscriptome and scaffolding for cadaver cells, summarizes their potential applications in regenerative medicine, and lists their limitations, such as donor’s unknown medical condition in criminal cases, limited differentiation potential, higher risk of carcinogenesis, or changing DNA quality. Finally, the review underlines the need to develop procedures determining the safe CaSCs harvesting and use.
Highlights
Stem cells (SCs) play a significant role in modern regenerative medicine
Embryos are a rich source of pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) that differentiate into all three germ layers: endoderm, mesoderm, and ectoderm (Bar and Benvenisty, 2020)
Stem cells can be sourced from somatic cells of adult organisms as it is possible to reprogram them to the pluripotent state
Summary
Stem cells (SCs) play a significant role in modern regenerative medicine. These undifferentiated, self-renewing cells forming populations show multi-line differentiation potential (Sharma, 2018). Since no symptoms of GVH disease were observed, the case confirmed that cadaver bone marrow might be an appropriate source of hematopoietic stem cells used for allogeneic transplantation (Kapelushnik et al, 1998), especially that the number of colony-forming cells [CFU-GM, BFU-E, and CFU-GEMM (Colony-Forming Unit—Granulocyte, Erythroid, Macrophage, Megakaryocyte)] is the same in case of living and cadaveric donors (Machaliński et al, 2003). Knowledge of the transcriptional changes in cadaveric stem cells (resulting, among others, from postmortem ischemia) may improve tissue harvesting and organ transplant protocols (Ferreira et al, 2018) Perhaps such information would allow to adjust the time of cell collection to the time of gene expression of specific factors related to the multipotency or pluripotency of stem cells and to manipulate them to improve the therapeutic effects of CaSCs transplantation. It is necessary to check how the expression of the genetic material of stem cells works by postmortem oxidative stress and the rapid activation of autophagy genes, and the rapid activation of various types of apoptotic genes
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