[Mesenchymal stem cells: A therapeutic update].

Mesenchymal stem cells/multipotent marrow stromal cells (MSC) have the ability to participate in there construction of tissues both directly by providing repair cells (essentially those originating from mesoderm)and indirectly by modulating inflammatory and immune responses. This wide range of properties makes these cells very appealing to treat various pathological conditions. They have been first used in 1995 as supportive cells to facilitate hematopoietic stem cells engraftment, and then to minimize the deleterious consequences of graft versus host disease by their immunosuppressive function. Their robust osteogenic differentiation capacity has also been evaluated in numerous preclinical settings of healing/repair but more rarely in human clinical trials. During the past 10-15 years, the potential benefit of their paracrine actions has been tested in various situations such as to facilitate repair after cutaneous defects after burns or lower consequences of ischemic strokes. The purpose of this series of short texts is not to give an exhaustive panorama, but to discuss some well-identified indications in four different fields : auto-immune diseases,bone repair, vascular regeneration and eye lesions such as corneal and retinal defects.