Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter to the Editor
  • Published:

Cotransplantation of umbilical cord MSCs to enhance engraftment of hematopoietic stem cells in patients with severe aplastic anemia

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 46, pages 1391–1392 (2011)Cite this article

Subjects

A recent issue of Bone Marrow Transplantation reported that BM-derived MSCs (BMMSCs) could promote engraftment in pediatric recipients of unrelated donor umbilical cord blood.1 Resnick et al.2 found that intraosseous injection of BMMSCs could improve hematopoietic engraftment. Previous studies have also demonstrated that cotransplantation of BMMSCs and hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) can enhance engraftment, prevent GVHD, accelerate lymphocyte recovery and reduce the risk of graft failure.1, 3 However, harvesting BMMSCs involves an invasive and painful procedure. Umbilical cords are rich with MSCs, which can be easily obtained and cultured.4 Therefore, umbilical cords may represent a viable alternative source of MSCs. Friedman et al.5 found that human umbilical cord-derived MSCs (UCMSCs) can accelerate human hematopoietic engraftment in SCID mice. In this study, we report two children receiving infusion of culture-expanded UCMSCs during PBSC transplantation, and both patients achieved rapid hematopoietic recovery without infusion-related toxicity.

The two patients were teenage girls diagnosed with severe aplastic anemia (SAA), who received immunosuppressive therapy, including CsA, methylprednisolone and antithymoglobulin, for 6 months. The treatment response was poor and they remained severely pancytopenic and transfusion dependent. No matched sibling donor existed for either patient; cotransplantation of UCMSCs and PBSCs from matched unrelated donors was performed after informed consents obtained from the parents.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Macmillan ML, Blazar BR, Defor TE, Wagner JE . Transplantation of ex-vivo culture-expanded parental haploidentical mesenchymal stem cells to promote engraftment in pediatric recipients of unrelated donor umbilical cord blood: results of a phase I-II clinical trial. Bone Marrow Transplant 2009; 43: 447–454.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Resnick I, Stepensky P, Elkin G, Barkatz C, Gurevich O, Prigozhina T et al. MSC for the improvement of hematopoietic engraftment. Bone Marrow Transplant 2010; 45: 605–606.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Ball LM, Bernardo ME, Roelofs H, Lankester A, Cometa A, Egeler RM et al. Cotransplantation of ex vivo-expanded mesenchymal stem cells accelerates lymphocyte recovery and may reduce the risk of graft failure in haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Blood 2007; 110: 2764–2767.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Secco M, Zucconi E, Vieira NM, Fogaça LL, Cerqueira A, Carvalho MD et al. Multipotent stem cells from umbilical cord: cord is richer than blood!. Stem Cells 2008; 26: 146–150.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Friedman R, Betancur M, Boissel L, Tuncer H, Cetrulo C, Klingemann H . Umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells: adjuvants for human cell transplantation. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 2007; 13: 1477–1486.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Wang HS, Hung SC, Peng ST, Huang CC, Wei HM, Guo YJ et al. Mesenchymal stem cells in the Wharton's jelly of the human umbilical cord. Stem Cells 2004; 22: 1330–1337.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Verfaillie CM . Direct contact between human primitive hematopoietic progenitors and bone marrow stroma is not required for long-term in vitro hematopoiesis. Blood 1992; 79: 2821–2826.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Holmberg LA, Seidel K, Leisenring W, Torok-Storb B . Aplastic anemia: analysis of stromal cell function in long-term marrow cultures. Blood 1994; 84: 3685–3690.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Chao YH, Peng CT, Harn HJ, Chan CK, Wu KH . Poor potential of proliferation and differentiation in bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells derived from children with severe aplastic anemia. Ann Hematol 2010; 89: 715–723.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Le Blanc K, Tammik L, Sundberg B, Haynesworth SE, Ringdén O . Mesenchymal stem cells inhibit and stimulate mixed lymphocyte cultures and mitogenic responses independently of the major histocompatibility complex. Scand J Immunol 2003; 57: 11–20.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The study was supported partially by grants from the Tao-Yuan General Hospital Project (PTH9702 and North 98017) and the China Medical University Hospital (DMR-98-036).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan

    Y-H Chao

  2. School of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan

    Y-H Chao

  3. Bionet Corp, Taipei, Taiwan

    C Tsai

  4. Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital and School of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University and Hospitals, Taichung, Taiwan

    C-T Peng, T Weng & K-H Wu

  5. Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Asia University, Taichung, Taiwan

    C-T Peng

  6. Department of Pediatrics, Buddhist Tzu-Chi General Hospital, Taichung Branch, Taichung, Taiwan

    H-P Wu

  7. Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan

    H-P Wu

  8. Graduate Institute of Clinical Medical Science, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan

    C-K Chan

  9. Department of Pediatrics, Taoyuan General Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan

    C-K Chan

  10. Department of Medical Research, Stem Cell Research Laboratory, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan E-mail: m9683013@kimo.com,

    K-H Wu

Authors
  1. Y-H Chao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. C Tsai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. C-T Peng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. H-P Wu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. C-K Chan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. T Weng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. K-H Wu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Chao, YH., Tsai, C., Peng, CT. et al. Cotransplantation of umbilical cord MSCs to enhance engraftment of hematopoietic stem cells in patients with severe aplastic anemia. Bone Marrow Transplant 46, 1391–1392 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2010.305

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2010.305

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links