Hypoxic Preconditioning as a Strategy to Maintain the Regenerative Potential of Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are non-hematopoietic cells with high proliferative potential and multi-lineage differentiation capacity. MSCs are promising therapeutic candidates for cell-based therapies, and hundreds of clinical trials have been registered using these cells. Potential of stem cells is compromised with the factors such as disease condition and age of donor. Therefore, taking the cells from such patients for autologous use may compromise the benefits of cell-based therapies. It is therefore required to enhance the potential of these cells before use in stem cell-based therapies. Optimization of culture conditions is preferred strategies to enhance the regenerative potential of cells before use. This chapter briefly overviews the benefits of hypoxic preconditioning of stem cells to enhance the regenerative potential of cells in terms of their survival, proliferation, and differentiation