Short Peptides: On the Trail of Future Stem Cell-Based Regenerative Therapies

Abstract

Stem cells therapy is a great hope for untreatable diseases, transplantology and cosmetology. What is more, with regenerative benefits of stem cells, prolongation of human life is real. Nevertheless, stem cell-based therapeutical defects, such as low efficiency of differentiation or poor immune compatibility, cannot be overlooked. Short peptides, due to their unique features, play an important supporting role in culture medium to stimulate diverse activities of stem cells and provide a new glimpse into future regenerative biomedicine. These simple biomolecules, constituents of proteins, have relevance in the transmission of biological information, can penetrate the cell membrane or activate signalling pathways. They have immunomodulatory, gero-, neuro-, vaso- and skin-protective effects. They enhance proliferation and differentiation of stem cells. Utilizing of short peptides can be helpful in guiding stem cell fate, by mimicking native tissues, which leads to optimization of stem cell-based treatment. They are also important modifiers of scaffolds and modulators of biomaterials in relation to stem cells engineering. This mini review is a summary of the survey of the newest scientific findings, scattered across the world literature, focusing on short peptides as promising tool in seeking safe and effective stem cell-based therapeutical code.