Organ and tissue transplantation are limited by the scarcity of donated organs or tissue sources. The success of transplantation is limited by the risk of disease transmission and immunological- related rejection. There is a need for new strategies and innovative solutions to make transplantation readily available, safer and with less complications to increase the success rates. Accelerating progress in stem cell biology and biomaterials development have pushed tissue and organ engineering to a higher level. Among stem cells repertoire, Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSC) are gaining interest and recognized as a cell population of choice. There is accumulating evidence that MSC growth factors, its soluble and insoluble proteins are involved in several key signaling pathways to promote tissue development, cellular differentiation and regeneration. MSC as multipotent non-hematopoietic cells with paracrine factors is advantageous for regenerative therapies. In this review, we discussed and summarized the important features of MSC including its immunomodulatory properties, mechanism of homing in the direction of tissue injury, licensing of MSC and the role of MSC soluble factors in cell-free therapy. Special consideration is highlighted on the rapidly growing research interest on the roles of MSC in ocular surface regeneration.

器官和组织移植受到捐赠器官或组织来源稀缺的限制。移植的成功受到疾病传播和免疫相关排斥的风险的限制。需要新的策略和创新的解决方案来使移植更容易，更安全并且并发症更少，以提高成功率。干细胞生物学和生物材料开发的加速发展将组织和器官工程推向了更高的水平。在干细胞库中，间充质干细胞（MSC）引起了人们的兴趣，并被认为是选择的细胞群。有越来越多的证据表明，MSC生长因子，其可溶和不可溶蛋白参与了几个促进组织发育，细胞分化和再生的关键信号通路。MSC作为具有旁分泌因子的多能非造血细胞，对于再生疗法是有利的。在这篇综述中，我们讨论并总结了MSC的重要特征，包括其免疫调节特性，在组织损伤方向上归巢的机制，MSC的许可以及MSC可溶性因子在无细胞治疗中的作用。在对MSC在眼表再生中的作用方面迅速增长的研究兴趣方面，特别需要考虑。