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Abstract

Tissue healing, whether from trauma, surgery, chemotherapy or radiation, is a complex, coordinated sequence of events that even under optimal conditions often results in some element of fibrosis or scar.  Cell-based immunotherapies are currently being developed as a novel approach to many diseases in an effort to not just repair the injured or lost tissue but regenerate functional tissue as well.  Progenitor cells, such as adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs), hold great promise in regenerative medicine due to their unique immunomodulatory properties, particularly in combination with extracellular matrix based scaffolds for injection or implantation.   ASCs not only participate directly in tissue repair and regeneration but also modulate the host immune responses toward the injury, the implanted biomaterial construct or the tumor bed.  This talk will discuss the influence of ASCs on innate and adaptive immunity when combined with natural and synthetic scaffolds as well as on local anti-tumor immunity.  The unique secretome of such biomaterial constructs indicates the paracrine effect of ASCs may far outweigh their multi-potency. Such immunomodulation could play a major role in determining the clinical efficacy of these therapeutic interventions.  Better understanding of the interactions between biomaterials, cells, and the tumor microenvironment will translate to the development of clinically-relevant, novel cell-based therapeutics for oncologic tissue reconstruction.