Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy in Retinitis Pigmentosa Patients: A Literature Review

Abstract

Background: Retinitis pigmentosa is a hereditary degenerative disorder of an autosomal dominant, autosomal recessive, or X-linked recessive inheritance pattern. It is also known as dystrophy of rod and cone as the major degeneration occur in the photoreceptor rods with minor degeneration of cones. The early stage of the disease involves night vision loss and limited peripheral vision, whereas the later stages involve the loss of color vision and central vision. There is no curative treatment for retinal disorders; however, several treatment strategies are involved such as stem cell therapy, and gene therapy. Mesenchymal stem cells are a non-hematopoietic clonogenic, multipotent, heterogeneous subset of the stem cell population that can be isolated from many sources of adult tissues and have the capability to differentiate into various types of specialized cells. Therefore, they are widely used in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine for their self-renewal, immunomodulatory, and pluripotency characteristics and they can be a promising treatment for retinitis pigmentosa. Objective: This literature review aims to discuss the use of mesenchymal stem cells transplantation for the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa and assess the outcomes of this therapy and its usefulness. Methods: A literature was conducted using Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid Embase, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews in the Cochrane Library. Keywords such as "MSC, Mesenchymal stem cell, Mesenchymal stem cell transplantation, Stem cell therapy, stem cell treatment, Regenerative medicine, Cell-based Therapy, bone marrow-derived stem cell, adipose tissue-derived stem cell, umbilical cord-derived stem cell, RP, and Retinitis Pigmentosa." were used for the searching process. Trials published in English with in the years between 2013 and 2023 were evaluated. Results: A total of eleven trials were included; two were preclinical and nine trials were clinical. The assessed mesenchymal stem cells included those derived from adipose tissue, bone marrow, umbilical cord and Warton jelly cells. The outcomes and complications of each type were discussed. Conclusion: The effectiveness and outcomes of MSCs treatment for RP varied between different types of MSCs used in therapy. Umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells resulted in better outcomes compared to other types of cells. However, the evidence of using MSCs for RP treatment is weak and there is a need for strong evidence on the effectiveness of MSCs for RP treatment. Therefore, MSCs may not be a promising treatment for RP as it was expected.