Prospects for stem cell-based mucosal regeneration therapy in inflammatory bowel disease.

Recent advances in the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases has raised its therapeutic goal up to completely repairing the damaged intestinal tissue and achieve "mucosal healing". To improve and further facilitate the tissue repair process in inflammatory bowel disease patients, stem cell based therapy using mesenchymal stem cells is under development. Also, transplantation of ex-vivo cultured intestinal stem cells is another regenerative therapy that may become an alternative choice to treat refractory ulcers in inflammatory bowel disease patients. Therefore, the present review summarizes the present achievement as well as future prospects of stem cell based therapy in inflammatory bowel disease.