Great strides have been in made in the last two decades in the field of veterinary regenerative medicine. Mesenchymal Stromal Cells’ (MSCs) mechanism of action has been completely revisited. MSCs, wishfully thought as cells being able to differenciate themselves and replace damaged tissue, have turned out to be only transient but key signalling cells, interacting with the microenvironment to restore the conditions for an efficient tissue healing process.
This new perceiption of their mechanims of action has drived the expansion of their use, initially restricted to autologous treatments of orthopaedic conditions, to allogenic treatments to tackle diverse inflammatory and immune problems.
However, both the diversity of the sources of MSCs and the use of different production processes, can render scientific data analysis confusing ; especially for veterinarians who now have at their fingertips a choice of an wide array of therapeutic cellular products.
In this review we aim to clarify the current state of the art in animal regenerative medicine, while lightening them with scientific data from studies in man.