A strategy for enhancing the engraftment of human hematopoietic stem cells in NOD/SCID mice

Ann Hematol. 2013 Dec;92(12):1595-602. doi: 10.1007/s00277-013-1830-1. Epub 2013 Jul 9.

Abstract

To overcome the limitations of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), we conducted a study to identify a strategy for enhancing hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) engraftment during HSCT. Co-transplantation experiments with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) derived from adult human tissues including bone marrow (BM), adipose tissue (AT), and umbilical cord blood (CB) were conducted. We showed that AT-MSCs and CB-MSCs enhanced the engraftment of HSCs as effectively as BM-MSCs in NOD/SCID mice, suggesting that AT-MSCs and CB-MSCs can be used as alternative stem cell sources for enhancing the engraftment and homing of HSCs. CB-MSCs derived from different donors showed different degrees of efficacy in enhancing the engraftment of HSCs. The most effective CB-MSCs showed higher proliferation rates and secreted more MCP-1, RANTES, EGF, and VEGF. Our results suggest that AT-MSCs and CB-MSCs could be alternative stem cell sources for co-transplantation in HSCT. Furthermore, in terms of MSCs' heterogeneity, characteristics of each population of MSCs are considerable factors for selecting MSCs suitable for co-transplantation with HSC.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adipose Tissue / cytology
  • Adipose Tissue / physiology
  • Adipose Tissue / transplantation
  • Animals
  • Bone Marrow Cells / physiology
  • Cell Proliferation
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Fetal Blood / physiology
  • Fetal Blood / transplantation
  • Graft Survival / physiology*
  • Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation / methods*
  • Humans
  • Mesenchymal Stem Cells / physiology*
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred NOD
  • Mice, SCID