الفهرس 
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Abstract
Human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBM-MSCs) are considered promising adult multipotent stem cell populations that show a great potential for the treatment of a variety of diseases. In addition to their intrinsic “stem” properties for cell-based therapy, numerous lines of evidence suggest that MSCs secrete several soluble factors, which can stimulate the regeneration of surrounding microenvironment. Among these factors, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a key pro-angiogenic factor that increases vascularization and perfusion, thus considered one of the key players behind clinical improvement of patients with myocardial infarction, limb ischemia and stroke that receive MSC therapy. MSCs are well known for their capacity to home to injured tissues, differentiate into distinctive cell types, and promote the formation of regenerative microenvironments. However systemic delivery of MSCs appears to be a safe and clinically relevant approach for cell therapy, low cell survival, together with the poor organ-specific cell retention and the difficulty to control the phenotype of transplanted cells over sufficiently long times, have greatly hampered the success of cell-based therapies.