Skeletal Research Center, Department of Biology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Stem Cells Transl Med. 2017 Jun;6(6):1445-1451. doi: 10.1002/sctm.17-0051. Epub 2017 Apr 28.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were officially named more than 25 years ago to represent a class of cells from human and mammalian bone marrow and periosteum that could be isolated and expanded in culture while maintaining their in vitro capacity to be induced to form a variety of mesodermal phenotypes and tissues. The in vitro capacity to form bone, cartilage, fat, etc., became an assay for identifying this class of multipotent cells and around which several companies were formed in the 1990s to medically exploit the regenerative capabilities of MSCs. Today, there are hundreds of clinics and hundreds of clinical trials using human MSCs with very few, if any, focusing on the in vitro multipotential capacities of these cells. Unfortunately, the fact that MSCs are called "stem cells" is being used to infer that patients will receive direct medical benefit, because they imagine that these cells will differentiate into regenerating tissue-producing cells. Such a stem cell treatment will presumably cure the patient of their medically relevant difficulties ranging from osteoarthritic (bone-on-bone) knees to various neurological maladies including dementia. I now urge that we change the name of MSCs to Medicinal Signaling Cells to more accurately reflect the fact that these cells home in on sites of injury or disease and secrete bioactive factors that are immunomodulatory and trophic (regenerative) meaning that these cells make therapeutic drugs in situ that are medicinal. It is, indeed, the patient's own site-specific and tissue-specific resident stem cells that construct the new tissue as stimulated by the bioactive factors secreted by the exogenously supplied MSCs. Stem Cells Translational Medicine 2017;6:1445-1451.
间充质干细胞（MSCs）在 25 年前被正式命名，代表了一类来自人类和哺乳动物骨髓和骨膜的细胞，可以在体外分离和扩增，同时保持其体外诱导形成多种中胚层表型和组织的能力。体外形成骨、软骨、脂肪等的能力成为鉴定这种多能细胞的一种方法，围绕这一能力，20 世纪 90 年代成立了几家公司，试图从医学上利用 MSCs 的再生能力。如今，有数百家诊所和数百项临床试验使用人 MSCs，其中很少有（如果有的话）关注这些细胞的体外多潜能能力。不幸的是，MSCs 被称为“干细胞”，这一事实被用来推断患者将直接受益于医疗，因为他们想象这些细胞会分化为产生再生组织的细胞。这种干细胞治疗大概会治愈患者的与医学相关的各种疾病，从骨关节炎（骨对骨）的膝盖到各种神经疾病，包括痴呆。我现在敦促我们将 MSCs 的名称更改为“药用信号细胞”，以更准确地反映这些细胞会在损伤或疾病部位归巢并分泌具有免疫调节和营养（再生）作用的生物活性因子的事实，这意味着这些细胞会在原位产生治疗性药物，从而具有药用价值。事实上，正是患者自身的组织特异性和部位特异性驻留干细胞，在由外源性供应的 MSCs 分泌的生物活性因子的刺激下构建新的组织。《干细胞转化医学》2017 年；6：1445-1451。
