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Future of cord blood for non-oncology uses

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 44, pages 683–697 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

For the last 5 years cord blood (CB) has been under intense experimental investigation in in vitro differentiation models and in preclinical animal models ranging from bone to muscle regeneration, cardiovascular diseases including myocardial and peripheral arterial disease, stroke and Parkinson's disease. On the basis of its biological advantages, CB can be an ideal source for tissue regeneration. However, in the hype of the so-called ‘plasticity’, many cell types have been characterized either on cell surface Ag expression alone or by RNA expression only, and without detailed characterization of genetic pathways; frequently, cells are defined without analysis of cellular function in vitro and in vivo, and the definition of the lineage of origin and cells have not been defined in preclinical studies. Here, we explore not only the most consistent data with regard to differentiation of CB cells in vitro and in vivo, but also show technical limitations, such as why in contrast to cell populations isolated from fresh CB, cryopreserved CB is not the ideal source for tissue regeneration. By taking advantage of numerous CB units discarded due to lack of sufficient hematopoietic cells for clinical transplantation, new concepts to produce off-the-shelf products are presented as well.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank all the co-authors of our jointly published papers that were cited here and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) for funding the research group FOR 717 including the project Ko2119/6-1. Studies reported from the author's laboratory concerning the hematopoiesis-supporting activity, which were reviewed here, have been supported by the German José Carreras Leukemia Foundation grant DJCLS-R03/06; DJCLS-R07/05v. Thanks to Teja Radke, S Maria Kluth, Aurelie Lefort and Anja Buchheiser, PhD, for their excellent technical support and Karen Mattheisen for reading the paper. G Kögler personally thank E Gluckman, who introduced me into the world of cord blood and motivated me all along the way.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Transplantation Diagnostics and Cell Therapeutics, University of Duesseldorf Medical School, Duesseldorf, Germany

    G Kögler & T Trapp

  2. Department of Pediatrics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA

    P Critser & M Yoder

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  1. G Kögler
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  2. P Critser
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  3. T Trapp
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Correspondence to G Kögler.

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Kögler, G., Critser, P., Trapp, T. et al. Future of cord blood for non-oncology uses. Bone Marrow Transplant 44, 683–697 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2009.287

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