Mesenchymal stem cells as a platform for research on traditional medicine

Abstract

The translation of Traditional Medicines (TMs) such as Ayurveda, and Traditional Chinese Medicine into clinical practice remains obstructed due to lack of scientific evidence by means of safety, quality, standardization, clinical efficacy, and mode of action. These limitations can be attributed to the lack of synonymous in vitro models which reflect in vivo features. Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) have emerged as an efficient cell source for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. In this review, the authors discuss how hMSCs can be used as an in vitro platform to screen herbs described in TMs using modern methods such as evaluation of its potential, safety, quality, mode of action, etc. Integration of traditional knowledge systems like Ayurveda and hMSCs as a platform to screen and study TMs using modern tools will effectively increase the validity of TMs as evidence-based medicine.

Keywords

• Evidence-based traditional medicines
• Ayurveda
• Mesenchymal stem cells