Harnessing adult mesenchymal stem/progenitor cells to stimulate skeletal tissue repair is a strategy that is being actively investigated. While scientists continue to develop creative and thoughtful ways to utilize these cells for tissue repair, the vast majority of these methodologies can ultimately be categorized into two main approaches: (1) Facilitating the recruitment of endogenous host cells to the injury site; and (2) physically administering into the injury site cells themselves, exogenously, either by autologous or allogeneic implantation. The aim of this paper is to comprehensively review recent key literature on the use of these two approaches in stimulating healing and repair of different skeletal tissues. As expected, each of the two strategies have their own advantages and limitations (which we describe), especially when considering the diverse microenvironments of different skeletal tissues like bone, tendon/ligament, and cartilage/fibrocartilage. This paper also discusses stem/progenitor cells commonly used for repairing different skeletal tissues, and it lists ongoing clinical trials that have risen from the implementation of these cells and strategies. Lastly, we discuss our own thoughts on where the field is headed in the near future.
Keywords: bone; cartilage; fibrocartilage; ligament; progenitor cell; regeneration; skeletal tissue repair; stem cell; tendon.