Conventional and Emerging Cell Therapy Strategies

Cell therapy is the transfer of cells into a patient that has emerged as a promising approach to improve or even cure a wide range of diseases. This strategy takes advantage of the use of living cells that interact actively with the host organism to overcome biological barriers to target specific cell types and tissues. Cell therapy could be based on the use of either stem cells, unspecialized and self-renewing cells that can differentiate into several cell types, or non-stem cells/somatic cells highly specialized that can be further manipulated or treated before reintroduction into humans. This chapter outlines the general concept and types of cell therapies, with a focus on two of the most advanced types used in clinical practice: mesenchymal stem cells and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells.