Immunosuppressed Miniswine as a Model for Testing Cell Therapy Success: Experience With Implants of Human Salivary Stem/Progenitor Cell Constructs.

ABSTRACT: An urgent need exists to develop large animal models for preclinical testing of new cell therapies designed to replace lost or damaged tissues. Patients receiving irradiation for treatment of head and neck cancers frequently develop xerostomia/dry mouth, a condition that could one day be treated by cell therapy to repopulate functional saliva-producing cells. Using immunosuppression protocols developed for patients receiving whole face transplants, we successfully used immunosuppressed miniswine as a suitable host animal to evaluate the long-term stability, biocompatibility, and fate of matrix-modified hyaluronate (HA) hydrogel/bioscaffold materials containing encapsulated salivary human stem/progenitor cells (hS/PCs). An initial biocompatibility test was conducted in parotids of untreated

SUBMITTER: Wu D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8516353 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature