Premature ovarian failure (POF) is a common endocrine disease causing female infertility. It is characterized by high gonadotropin expression [follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) ≥ 40 mIU/mL], low estradiol (E2) expression, and follicular dysplasia in women aged less than 40 years [1]. During 2007–2008, the term primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) was suggested to represent this dysfunction related to very early aging of the ovaries [2].
Causes of POF/POI are unknown and related to many complicated factors such as genetic defects [3], autoimmunity [4, 5], chemotherapy injury [6], and others; POF/POI can present as idiopathic [7]. Currently, the prevention and treatment of POF are extremely limited.
The most commonly employed hormone replacement therapy cannot effectively recover ovarian function [8]. Thus, the demand for novel and effective therapeutics for POF has increased. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are highly important in regenerative medicine because of their inherent regenerative properties [9, 10]. Many reports suggested that human mesenchymal stem cell (hMSC) transplantation was a promising treatment for POF [11]. MSCs are multipotent stem cells that are easy to obtain and have poor immunogenicity [12, 13]. They can be harvested from several adult tissues, such as the bone marrow (BM), umbilical cord (UC), peripheral blood, adipose tissue (AD), placenta, and menstrual fluid
[14–20].
They are an excellent source of growth factors/cytokines. In this study, the recently published data on hMSC treatment of POF were summarized, and precise mechanisms underlying the effect of stem cells on POF were explored.
