Mesenchymal stem cells as a therapeutic tool to treat sepsis

Sepsis is a clinical syndrome caused by a deregulated host response to an infection. Sepsis is the most frequent cause of death in hospitalized patients. Although knowledge of the pathogenesis of sepsis has increased substantially during the last decades, attempts to design effective and specific therapies targeting components of the derailed host response have failed. Therefore, there is a dramatic need for new and mechanistically alternative therapies to treat this syndrome. Based on their immunomodulatory properties, adult mesenchymal stem or stromal cells (MSCs) can be a novel therapeutic tool to treat sepsis. Indeed, MSCs reduce mortality in experimental models of sepsis by modulating the deregulated inflammatory response against bacteria through the regulation of multiple inflammatory networks, the reprogramming of macrophages and neutrophils towards a more anti-inflammatory phenotype and the release of anti-microbial peptides. This report will review the current knowledge on the effects of MSC treatment in preclinical experimental small animal models of sepsis.