Introduction: Skeletal muscle-derived stem cells (Sk-MDSCs) are considered promising sources of adult stem cell therapy. Skeletal muscle comprises approximately 40-50% of the total body mass with marked potential for postnatal adaptive response, such as muscle hypertrophy, hyperplasia, atrophy, and regenerative capacity. This strongly suggests that skeletal muscle contains various stem/progenitor cells related to muscle-nerve-vascular tissues, which would support the above postnatal events even in adulthood.
Area covered: The focus of this review is the therapeutic potential of the Sk-MDSCs as an adult stem cell autograft. For this purpose, the validity of cell isolation and purification, tissue reconstitution capacity in vivo after transplantation, comparison of the results of basic mouse and preclinical human studies, potential problematic and beneficial aspects, and effective usage have been discussed following the history of clinical applications.
Expert opinion: Although the clinical application of Sk-MDSCs began as a therapy for the systemic disease of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, here, through the unique local injection method, therapy for severely damaged peripheral nerves, particularly the long-gap nerve transection, has been introduced. The beneficial aspects of the use of Sk-MDSCs as the source of local tissue transplantation therapy have also been discussed.
Keywords: Autologous cell transplantation; adult stem cells; local cell injection treatment; long-gap nerve injury; nerve bridge; peripheral nerve therapy.