Most organs are susceptible to fibrotic diseases and currently fibroproliferative diseases are believed to be responsible for around 45% of deaths in developed countries. Although considerable efforts are being devoted to the search for antifibrotic treatments, there are currently few effective therapies for fibrotic diseases that do not result in severe secondary effects.

Last decades’ preclinical and clinical trials proposed stem cells as novel therapeutic agents for the treatment of fibroproliferative diseases. Recently, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) and mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) as well as their secretomes have been investigated as a novel therapeutic approach for the treatment of fibrotic diseases. MSC produces cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors that robustly regulate cell behavior in a paracrine fashion during the remodeling process. Due to their immunomodulatory effects and their ability to act on profibrotic factors such as oxidative stress, hypoxia, and the transforming growth factor-β1 pathway, MSC has already been highlighted in preclinical and clinical studies of liver cirrhosis, kidney fibrosis, pulmonary fibrosis, postmyocardial infarction remodeling, etc. However, there are several obstacles, including poor engraftment and unwanted differentiation into myofibroblasts, which should be addressed for safe therapeutic use of MSC in the treatment of fibroproliferative diseases.

In this special issue, we invite investigators to contribute with original research articles as well as review articles that provide novel insights about possible role of stem cells in modulation of inflammation and fibrosis.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Factors and parameters that modulate anti-inflammatory and antifibrotic characteristics of stem cells
• The balance between proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory phenotype of MSC in the cell therapy of inflammatory and fibroproliferative diseases
• Cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in MSC-mediated attenuation of liver cirrhosis
• Stem cell mediated mechanisms involved in myocardial remodeling after ischemic injury
• The role of MSC for prevention of fibrosis in kidney transplantation
• Pericyte-mediated mechanisms involved in kidney fibrosis
• iPSC and MSC as a novel therapeutic agents for the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis
• Perspectives and obstacles for stem cell-based therapy of inflammation and fibrosis