Mesenchymal stem cells: Biological characteristics and application in disease therapy

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent stem cells. In addition to the capacity for self-renewal and multipotential differentiation, MSCs also have the following characteristics. MSCs can exert immunomodulatory functions through interaction with innate or adaptive immune cells, MSCs with poor immunogenicity can be used for allogeneic transplantation, and MSCs can “home” to inflammation and tumour sites. Based on these biological properties, MSCs demonstrate broad clinical application prospects in the treatment of tissue injury, autoimmune diseases, transplantation, cancer and other inflammation-related diseases. In this review we describe the biological characteristics of MSCs and discuss the research advances of MSCs in regenerative medicine, immunomodulation, oncology, and COVID-19, to fully understand the range of diseases in which MSC therapy may be beneficial •The biological characteristics of MSCs are related to the clinical application of MSCs.•Taking advantage of the “tumour-homing” characteristic of MSCs to realise the release of anti-tumour agents.•MSCs secretome have the potential to play a great role in the treatment of many clinical diseases.•MSCs’ immunity to SARS-Cov-2 makes it a potential therapeutic for COVID-19.•Tumour initiation after transplantation limits the use of MSC in stem cell therapy.