Oxidative stress and stem cell transplantation

BACKGROUND: Stem cells with wide variety of sources have the potential of differentiation and self-renewal. In additional, autologous stem cells can avoid immune rejection after transplantation, and thus it has become one of the most promising alternative strategies for tissue/organ transplantation. However, due to the adverse environments at injured sites, such as oxidative stress and inflammation, current stem cell transplantation efficacy is relatively low. OBJECTIVE: To review the effects of oxidative stress on stem cells and on their transplantation efficiency as well as relevant mechanisms. METHODS: PubMed database was searched by the first author for relevant articles about stem cells published from 1990 to 2015. The keywords were “stem cell transplantation, stem cell, oxidative stress, molecular mechanism”. After eliminating literatures which had poor authority or similar content, 97 articles were involved in result analysis. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Different types of stem cells have different basal endogenous antioxidant stress levels. Oxidative stress through multiple molecular pathways causes cell aging, apoptosis and cancer, which also can result in apoptosis of cancer cells. Stem cells can adjust endogenous antioxidant levels through multiple paths. To improve the endogenous antioxidant stress level using a variety of methods can increase stem cell transplantation efficiency and prevent stem cell cancerization due to oxidative stress, which makes the clinical application of stem cell transplantation therapy safer and more popular.