Osteoporosis is a prevalent skeletal disorder that occurs more frequently in elderly individuals, particularly in men after the age of 65 and women after the age of 55 years. Therefore, it is the main cause of fractures in older people by reducing bone mass and mineral density.
In individuals with osteoporosis, the ability of the body’s mesenchymal stem cells to function, specifically in terms of cell growth, specialization, and ultimately bone formation, is diminished. Thus, they are the types of stem cells that are frequently studied in the research on treating osteoporosis. MSCs are a valuable type of stem cells that do not come from blood and have fewer ethical issues compared to other stem cells. They have many benefits for use in medicine, including being easily accessible and harvested. They also have the ability to suppress the immune system, can develop into different types of cells, specifically osteoblasts, and have a low risk of turning cancerous.
MSCs can be derived from different tissues as they are a subgroup of stromal stem cells. Bone marrow and adipose-derived MSCs, which possess a strong ability to differentiate into bone cells, are the most frequently utilized types of MSCs in osteoporosis treatment. Here, growing evidence suggests that changes in the molecular mechanisms that regulate the differentiation of osteoblasts in MSCs could enhance the reliability and effectiveness of MSC therapies for osteoporosis. The main therapeutic benefits of MSCs result from their ability to create a healing environment and produce paracrine effects, rather than their ability to differentiate into different cell types. In simpler terms, the transplantation of MSCs could potentially revolutionize the treatment of osteoporosis by utilizing the benefits of paracrine effects.