Mesenchymal stem cells: towering ambitions, shaky foundations

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been a feature of stem cell research since the early 1990s. Despite long-standing questions concerning the identity, characteristics, physiological functions, and potential therapeutic uses of these cells, MSC studies are now published more frequently than those of any other stem cell type. Over the past decade, this increase in the MSC literature is attributable almost entirely to publications by scientists in China. Reviewing the history and present state of MSC research, we explore why this might be and propose steps that stakeholders in China and other countries might take to address what has become one of the more perplexing developments in contemporary stem cell research.