Project description:To facilitate umbilical cord explant culture as a long-term source for mesenchymal stromal cells, we compared the transcriptome of mesenchymal stromal cell explant cultures (MSC-EM) initiated 14 days (early) post preparation, 2 months later (late) and with INF-g and TNF-a (25 ng/mL) activated samples
Project description:BACKGROUND:Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are used in over 800 clinical trials mainly due to their immune inhibitory activity. Umbilical cord (UC), the second leading source of clinically used MSCs, is usually cut in small tissue pieces. Subsequent cultivation leads to a continuous outgrowth of MSC explant monolayers (MSC-EMs) for months. Currently, the first MSC-EM culture takes approximately 2 weeks to grow out, which is then expanded and applied to patients. The initiating tissue pieces are then discarded. However, when UC pieces are transferred to new culture dishes, MSC-EMs continue to grow out. In case the functional integrity of these cells is maintained, later induced cultures could also be expanded and used for cell therapy. This would drastically increase the number of available cells for each patient. To test the functionality of MSC-EMs from early and late induction time points, we compared the first cultures to those initiated after 2 months by investigating their clonality and immunomodulatory capacity. METHODS:We analyzed the clonal composition of MSC-EM cultures by umbilical cord piece transduction using integrating lentiviral vectors harboring genetic barcodes assessed by high-throughput sequencing. We investigated the transcriptome of these cultures by microarrays. Finally, the secretome was analyzed by multiplexed ELISAs, in vitro assays, and in vivo in mice. RESULTS:DNA barcode analysis showed polyclonal MSC-EMs even after months of induction cycles. A transcriptome and secretome analyses of early and late MSC cultures showed only minor changes over time. However, upon activation with TNF-α and IFN-γ, cells from both induction time points produced a multitude of immunomodulatory cytokines. Interestingly, the later induced MSC-EMs produced higher amounts of cytokines. To test whether the different cytokine levels were in a therapeutically relevant range, we used conditioned medium (CM) in an in vitro MLR and an in vivo killing assay. CM from late induced MSC-EMs was at least as immune inhibitory as CM from early induced MSC-EMs. CONCLUSION:Human umbilical cord maintains a microenvironment for the long-term induction of polyclonal and immune inhibitory active MSCs for months. Thus, our results would offer the possibility to drastically increase the number of therapeutically applicable MSCs for a substantial amount of patients.
Project description:Human umbilical cord matrix-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (UCM-MSC) are advantageous since can be easily obtained and display special interest as universal and feasible add-on therapy for myocardial infarction (MI). In this study, UCM-MSC from two umbilical cords, UC-A and UC-B, were transplanted in a murine MI model to investigate consistency and durability of the therapeutic benefits. Both cellular products supported sustained and long-term beneficial therapeutic effect. In vitro, the two cell products displayed similar ability to induce the formation of vessel-like structures and comparable transcriptome in normoxia and hypoxia, apart from expression differences in a small subset of genes associated with MHC Class I. These findings support that UCM-MSC are strong candidates to assist the treatment of MI whilst calling for the discussion on methodologies to characterize and select best performing UCM-MSC before clinical application.
Project description:Human umbilical cord matrix-mesenchymal stromal cells (hUCM-MSC) have demonstrated beneficial effects in experimental acute myocardial infarction (AMI). In this study, we investigated the outcome of the delivery of hUCM-MSC after reperfusion in a translational model of AMI in swine. We have found that intracoronary injection of the cell product was associated with improved systolic function and that improvement in mechanical performance. This did not depend on the reduction of morphological infarct size alone, despite treated animals showing signs of less adverse remodeling.
Project description:MSC-EV exerts their effects by transferring cargo components into target cells. Given that extracellular vesicles (EV) can deliver diverse cargo to recipient cells and elicit similar therapeutic effects, we investigate the cargo of both adipose-derived MSC-derived EV (AMSC-EV) and umbilical cord-derived MSC-derived EV (HUMSC-EV).As a crucial component of EV cargo, proteins are known to exert significant influence on EV functions. We performed a protein analysis of MSC-EV.
Project description:Mesenchymal stromal cell-derived extracellular vesicles (MSC-EVs) are recognized as a promising strategy for cell-free therapy, however, their therapeutic role in pulmonary fibrosis remains unrevealed. Here, we report the safety and efficacy of MSC-EVs from human umbilical cord (hUCMSC-EVs) evaluated in mouse models and pulmonary fibrosis patients. We established a rigorous system to produce high-quality of hUCMSC-EVs, characterized by miRNA, protein, and metabolite profiles. When administered via nebulization, hUCMSC-EVs predominantly accumulated in murine lungs and ameliorated bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis, with increased survival rate (from 20% to 80%), restored lung volume, and attenuated injury severity accompanied by elevated oxyhemoglobin saturation and improved pulmonary function evaluations. We performed a phase l clinical trial involving twenty-four patients in a randomized, single-blind, and placebo-controlled study to treat pulmonary fibrosis (MR-46-22-004531, ChiCTR2300075466). All participants tolerated the nebulized hUCMSC-EVs well, with no serious adverse events. Patients receiving the combined therapy of nebulized hUCMSC-EVs and routine treatment demonstrated significant improvements in both lung function indices (forced vital capacity and maximal voluntary ventilation) and respiratory health status (as measured by the Saint George's Respiratory Questionnaire and Leicester Cough Questionnaire. Overall, patients upon the additional therapy with nebulized hUCMSC-EVs gained significant benefits compared with those accepted only routine treatment. Remarkably, two patients with advanced post-inflammatory pulmonary fibrosis exhibited clinically significant regression on serial CT scans after hUCMSC-EV therapy. These findings suggest that nebulized hUCMSC-EVs could be used as a promising therapeutic strategy for treating pulmonary fibrosis diseases.
Project description:Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are multipotent cells which can be obtained from several adult and fetal tissues including human umbilical cord units. We have recently shown that umbilical cord tissue (UC) is richer in MSC than umbilical cord blood (UCB) but their origin and characteristics in blood as compared to the cord remains unknown. Here we compared, for the first time, the exonic protein-coding and intronic noncoding RNA (ncRNA) expression profiles of MSC from match-paired UC and UCB samples, harvested from the same donors, processed simultaneously and under the same culture conditions. The patterns of intronic ncRNA expression in MSC from UC and UCB paired units were highly similar, indicative of their common donor origin. The respective exonic protein-coding transcript expression profiles, however, were significantly different. Hierarchical clustering based on protein-coding expression similarities grouped MSC according to their tissue location rather than original donor. Genes related to systems development, osteogenesis and immune system were expressed at higher levels in UCB, whereas genes related to cell adhesion, morphogenesis, secretion, angiogenesis and neurogenesis were more expressed in UC cells. These molecular differences verified in tissue-specific MSC gene expression may reflect functional activities influenced by distinct niches and should be considered when developing clinical protocols involving MSC from different sources. In addition, these findings reinforce our previous suggestion on the importance of banking the whole umbilical cord unit for research or future therapeutic use.
Project description:Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have emerged as potent therapeutic tool for a number of pathologies, including immune ones. However, unwelcome effects of MSC on the blood coagulation were revealed in some cases, which require more in-depth analysis. In this study, we explored the trombotic properties of human MSC from umbilical cord. We revealed strong procoagulant effects of umbilical cord MSC toward human and rat whole blood and platelets-free plasma using rotational thromboelastometry and thrombodynamics tests. The similar potentiation of clotting was demonstrated for MSC-derived extracellular vesicles (EV). In order to suggest approaches to avoid unwanted effects we studied the impact of heparin supplement on MSC/EV procoagulation properties. We found that therapeutic doses of unfractionated heparin injected in the patient's blood (administered in vivo) did not abrogate the procoagulant properties of MSC. Mass-spectrometry analysis of proteins of MSC and EV involved in coagulation-associated pathways was used to evaluate mechanisms of protrombotic effects.