Adipose-derived stem cells for tissue engineering and therapy of non-healing wounds

Chronic wounds seem to be a big problem for the medicinal, social and commercial area, especially for elder patients or people with cancer, metabolic or autoimmune diseases. In this respect, in the modern regenerative medicine there are intensive studies on methodologies that stimulate healing of chronic wounds (diabetic foots, ulcers, burns). In tissue engineering new solutions in wound healing are based on cellular therapies which consisting of growth factors and various types of scaffolds. In this way, there are created skin substitutes which are composed of cellular auto/allografts (stem cells and differentiated cells) and most commonly biodegradable scaffolds; they aim is not only to fill the tissue but also to stimulate wound healing. In this article we demonstrate the current knowledge about biological properties of Adipose-derived Stem Cells (ASCs), methods of their isolation and potential for use in therapies for non-healing wounds. Adipose tissue seems to be an attractive and abundant stem cells source with therapeutic applicability in diverse phase of the repair and regeneration of the chronically damaged tissues. Additionally, it is believed that secreted by ASCs growth factors, cytokines and exosomes are decisive in the clinical effects. In this review, we also present the current clinical trials using stem cells derived from adipose tissue. Increasingly, the use of cell therapy in wound healing treatment draws attention to the safety, reproducibility and quality of stem cells. Researches go on and therapy approaches are possible but the detailed knowledge of the ASCs biology must be thoroughly investigated before these cells would be widely used in the clinical trials.