Bone marrow stem cell transplants represent the broadest and longest used form of stem cell regenerative therapy. Various blood cancers (including myeloma, lymphoma and leukemia) have been treated since the seventies by destroying a patient's immune system with radiation and chemotherapy and then replacing it with a regenerated immune system initiated through the transplanting of bone marrow stem cells.
Bone marrow stem cells are available in cord blood (collected from the umbilical cord after the baby is delivered and separated from the cord). One of the fastest growing segments of industry generated by stem cell research is in companies that collect and cryogenically preserve cord blood and those that produce the equipment used to do it.
Cord blood is increasingly being used by transplant centers as an alternative source of stem cells for the treatment of blood cancers. Cord blood stem cells have a greater proliferative capacity than adult bone marrow stem cells and a greater number of stem cells are found in cord blood than in adult bone marrow or peripheral blood. Promising uses of cord blood stem cells outside the cancer arena are currently being researched. But right now these stem cells are most commonly used for bone marrow transplantation when a donor from a patient’s family or an unrelated donor does not produce an appropriate bone marrow match.
The current drawback to the broader use of cord blood stem cells is their limited volume and cell number; there are generally only enough cells available from a single cord blood collection for children or very small adults. Cord blood stem cells also usually take longer to engraft, leaving the patient at a high risk for infection longer than donor matched transplanted marrow or peripheral blood stem cells.
Kent W. Christopherson II, PhD, assistant professor of medicine and researcher in the Sections of Hematology and Stem Cell Transplantation at Rush University, is researching a small molecule enzyme inhibitor (CD26) that enhances directional homing of stem cells to the bone marrow by increasing the responsiveness of donor stem cells to a natural homing signal. Homing is the process by which the donor stem cells find their way to the bone marrow. It is the first step in stem cell transplantation and an essential one.
The goal of Christopherson’s research is to increase the transplant efficiency of umbilical cord blood and ultimately make transplant safer and available to any patient requiring this treatment. 250,000 new cancer patients per year require or would benefit from stem cell transplantation and as many as 20% are unable to find a blood or marrow match.
Adapted from a Rush University announcement available here.
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