Ageing and age-related diseases share some basic origin that largely converges on inflammation. Precisely, it boils down to a common pathway characterised by the appearance of a fair amount of proinflammatory cytokines known as inflammageing. Among the proposed treatment for antiageing, MSCs gained attention in recent years. Since mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can differentiate itself into a myriad of terminal cells, previously it was believed that these cells migrate to the site of injury and perform their therapeutic effect. However, with the more recent discovery of huge amounts of paracrine factors secreted by MSCs, it is now widely accepted that these cells do not engraft upon transplantation but rather unveil their benefits through excretion of bioactive molecules namely those involved in inflammatory and immunomodulatory activities. Conversely, the true function of these paracrine changes has not been thoroughly investigated all these years. Hence, this review will describe in detail on ways MSCs may capitalize its paracrine properties in modulating antiageing process. Through a comprehensive literature search various elements in the antiageing process, we aim to provide a novel treatment perspective of MSCs in antiageing related clinical conditions.
Cord blood (CB) is widely stored as a source of hematopoietic stem cells for potential future use, though its application for autologous purposes remains limited. Repurposing CB into human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) can broaden its utility beyond hematological conditions. This study investigated the effects of umbilical cord-mesenchymal stromal cell (UC-MSC) co-culture on CB CD34+ cells and the characteristics of the resulting hiPSCs. CD34+ cells were isolated, expanded in UC-MSC co-culture for 3 days, and reprogrammed into hiPSCs using episomal vectors. Results showed that UC-MSC co-culture significantly increased CD34+ cell numbers (p < 0.0001, n = 6), with a reduced population doubling time of 25.1 ± 2.1 hours compared with the control (p < 0.0004, n = 6). The yield of CD34+ cells was substantially higher in the UC-MSC co-culture group. The hiPSCs exhibited comparable reprogramming efficiency, pluripotency marker expression, trilineage differentiation potential, and genomic stability to CD34+ cells expanded under standard culture conditions. These findings suggest that CD34+ cells from CB, expanded in UC-MSC co-culture, can be reprogrammed into functional hiPSCs without compromising cell quality or genetic stability.