Editorial Commentary: Please Don't Call It a Mesenchymal Stem Cell.

Abstract

One of the holy grails in orthopedics, and for medicine in general, is to have easy access to an immediately available and viable source of progenitor cells for use in tissue regeneration. The use of the term "mesenchymal stem cell" has been called into question, as it has historically represented a wide variety of tissue-specific cell types, only some of which can be categorized as true stem cells. More recent literature has better defined the characteristics of a stem cell, yet the landscape is still littered with unsubstantiated claims of cures for many human diseases, both within orthopaedic surgery as well as other fields of medicine. Although attention is needed to more carefully define the characteristics of the cells under investigation in any particular line of research, significantly more work will be involved to learn the biological mechanisms and signaling involved in coaxing these cells into in vivo tissue regeneration.