Engineered human mesenchymal stem cells: a novel platform for skeletal cell mediated gene therapy

Abstract

hMSCs represent a novel platform for skeletal gene therapy and the present results suggest that they can be genetically engineered to express desired therapeutic proteins inducing specific differentiation pathways. Moreover, hMSCs obtained from osteoporotic patients can restore their osteogenic activity following human BMP-2 gene transduction, an important finding in the future planning of gene therapy treatment for osteoporosis.