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Damaged epithelia regenerated by bone marrow–derived cells in the human gastrointestinal tract

Nature Medicine volume 8, pages 1011–1017 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Studies have shown that bone marrow cells have the potential to differentiate into a variety of cell types. Here we show that bone marrow cells can repopulate the epithelia of the human gastrointestinal tract. Epithelial cells of male donor origin were distributed in every part of the gastrointestinal tract of female bone marrow transplant recipients. Donor-derived epithelial cells substantially repopulated the gastrointestinal tract during epithelial regeneration after graft-versus-host disease or ulcer formation. Regeneration of gastrointestinal epithelia with donor-derived cells in humans shows a potential clinical application of bone marrow–derived cells for repairing severely damaged epithelia, not only in the gastrointestinal tract but also in other tissues.

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Figure 1: Detection of donor-derived epithelial cells using Y-chromosome FISH (Y-FISH).
Figure 2: Donor-derived cells repopulated every part of the GI tract epithelia.
Figure 3: Donor-derived epithelial cells were increased in the GI tract during GVHD.
Figure 4: Donor-derived epithelial cells were increased in the GI tract during epithelial regeneration.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported in part by grants-in-aid from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Chiyoda Mutual Life Foundation, Japan Heath Sciences Foundation, and Creative Scientific Research by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. The authors would like to thank H. Okano and Y. Tanaka for helpful discussion, T. Mori for providing the clinical information, S. Kakinuma for technical assistance, Y. Iwao for providing the specimens and R. Fujisaki for manuscript preparation.

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Author notes

  1. Ryuichi Okamoto and Tomoharu Yajima: R.O. and T.Y. contributed equally to this study.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Graduate School, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan

    Ryuichi Okamoto, Motomi Yamazaki, Takanori Kanai & Mamoru Watanabe

  2. Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan

    Tomoharu Yajima, Shinichiro Okamoto, Yasuo Ikeda & Toshifumi Hibi

  3. Division of Diagnostic Pathology, School of Medicine, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan

    Makio Mukai

  4. Department of Molecular Cytogenetics, Medical Research Institute, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan

    Johji Inazawa

Authors
  1. Ryuichi Okamoto
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  2. Tomoharu Yajima
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Correspondence to Mamoru Watanabe.

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Okamoto, R., Yajima, T., Yamazaki, M. et al. Damaged epithelia regenerated by bone marrow–derived cells in the human gastrointestinal tract. Nat Med 8, 1011–1017 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm755

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