EBMT 2018 | Improving the engraftment of hematopoietic stem cells
Fermin Sanchez-Guijo, MD, PhD, of Hospital Clínico Universitario de Salamanca, Salmanca, Spain, speaks to us about the role of mesenchymal stem cells in hematopoietic progenitor cell engraftment and the associated risks with this treatment, namely GvHD. This interview was recorded at the 2018 European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) Annual Meeting, held in Lisbon, Portugal.
Transcript (edited for clarity)
This is part of some project in which we’re looking at the role of MSC’s in the improvement of the engraftment of the hematopoetic progenitor cells. What we did in this part of the project is to evaluate the role of the extracellular vesicles that are derived from the mesenchymal stromal cells once they are incorporated in vitro to CD34 positive cells. And we’ve seen that this incorporation of vesicles modifies the function of the CD34 positive cells and, from a functional point of view what this hematopoetic cells that had incorporated vesicles normally do is to increase their engraftment ability in vivo, but also the protogenic potential is significantly higher...
This is part of some project in which we’re looking at the role of MSC’s in the improvement of the engraftment of the hematopoetic progenitor cells. What we did in this part of the project is to evaluate the role of the extracellular vesicles that are derived from the mesenchymal stromal cells once they are incorporated in vitro to CD34 positive cells. And we’ve seen that this incorporation of vesicles modifies the function of the CD34 positive cells and, from a functional point of view what this hematopoetic cells that had incorporated vesicles normally do is to increase their engraftment ability in vivo, but also the protogenic potential is significantly higher.
So this was the main issue with this work that was awarded the best basic award of the meeting. One of the problems of stem cell transplantation is GvHD, but also another important problem of the transplant has to do with the engraftment deficient ability to problems related to engraftment. So in this regard it’s difficult to improve the engraftment once you have the right number of the hematopoetic stem cells because also the stroma is damaged. So there’s difficult to improve the functional of the stroma and we think that maybe the addition of normal mesenchymal stromal cells or their vesicles to the bone marrow stromal may help in improving the function of the stroma and then improving the function of the hematopoeisis after the transplant.
Read more...
