Effect of Mesenchymal Stem Cells versus Betamethasone Cream on Imiquimod - Betamethasone Induced Psoriasis-Like Skin Lesion in Adult Male Albino Rats

Abstract

Psoriasis is a chronic, immune-meditated, genetic disease, with the most manifestations in the skin. Psoriasis vulgaris is the most common variety of this disease, which manifests as sharply demarcated, erythematous, pruritic plaques covered in silvery scales. Patients with psoriasis have serious problems in both physical and psychosocial aspects in addition to increased risk of other chronic diseases. Systemic drugs have immune-suppressive capacities can lead to toxicity when administered chronically while the advanced targeted biological drugs are very expensive and several adverse reactions have been also reported. Stem cell therapy has evoked great expectations and showed significant interest in regenerative medicine. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent non-hematopoietic stromal cells. They can be isolated from bone marrow, umbilical cord blood and adipose tissue. Because of their ability to modulate immune responses, MSCs are considered to be a therapeutic approach for the treatment of patients with different autoimmune diseases. However, few recent animal studies that investigated the potential use of stem cell therapy of different origins, in the treatment of psoriasis were found. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the possible effect of human umbilical cord derived mesenchymal stem cells (hUCB-MSCs) versus betamethasone cream in the treatment of psoriasis using imiquimod (IMQ)-induced psoriasis rat model.