Local lesions, including but not limited to tumors, granulomas, oral, cervical, skin, precancerous, and white matter lesions, are the origin of disease occurrence and development. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multilineage cells with the ability to self-renew and differentiate into a variety of cell types. MSCs can be isolated from a variety of tissues such as the umbilical cord, endometrial polyps, menses blood, bone marrow, adipose, dental, skin tissue, and many studies suggest that MSCs can be migrated to local lesions to perform special functions during disease occurrence.

However, the research on local lesions-derived MSCs is still relatively fragmented. Therefore, in-depth study of the role of local lesions-derived MSCs in the occurrence and development of diseases is particularly important to reveal the pathogenesis of disease.

This Special Issue welcomes original research and review articles with a special emphasis on MSCs derived from local lesions, including tumors, granuloma, and inflammation zones, and their phenotype, plasticity, differentiation capacity, immunological properties, and potential applications.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Local lesions-derived MSCs from tumor, granuloma and inflammation zone
• The phenotype, plasticity, differentiation capacity, and immunological properties of local lesions-derived MSCs
• Tumor-derived MSCs in tumor progression, including growth, angiogenesis, invasive ability, apoptosis, autophagy, senescence, and metastasis
• Granuloma-derived MSCs in the progression of infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis (TB)
• The biological effects of local lesions-derived MSCs on tumor cells or immune cells by secreting some growth factors, secretome, extracellular vesicles (EVs), and non-coding RNA
• The application of local lesions-derived MSCs in disease diagnosis