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Introduction: Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) have been extensively studied as a potential treatment for steroid refractory acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD). However, the majority of clinical trials have focused on bone marrow-derived MSCs., Methods: In this study, we report the outcomes of 86 patients with grade III-IV (82.6% grade IV) steroid refractory aGVHD who were treated with human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (UC-MSCs). The patient cohort included 17 children and 69 adults. All patients received intravenous infusions of UC-MSCs at a dose of 1 × 106 cells per kg body weight, with a median of 4 infusions (ranging from 1 to 16)., Results: The median time between the onset of aGVHD and the first infusion of UC-MSCs was 7 days (ranging from 3 to 88 days). At day 28, the overall response (OR) rate was 52.3%. Specifically, 24 patients (27.9%) achieved complete remission, while 21 (24.4%) exhibited partial remission. The estimated survival probability at 100 days was 43.7%. Following a median follow-up of 108 months (ranging from 61 to 159 months), the survival rate was approximately 11.6% (10/86). Patients who developed acute lower GI tract and liver GVHD exhibited poorer OR rates at day 28 compared to those with only acute lower GI tract GVHD (22.2% vs. 58.8%; p= 0.049). No patient experienced serious adverse events., Discussion: These finding suggest that UC-MSCs are safe and effective in both children and adults with steroid refractory aGVHD. UC-MSCs could be considered as a feasible treatment option for this challenging conditon. (NCT01754454)., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Niu, Li, Xu, Sheng, Tian, Ning, Hu, Chen, Li, Wang, Lou, Liu, Su, Sun, Qiao, Wang, Zhang, Lan, Xie, Ren, Peng, Wang, Shi, Zhao, Zhang, Chen, Zhang and Hu.)

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been widely used in allogeneic stem cell transplantation. We compared immunologic and hematopoietic characteristics of MSCs derived from whole human umbilical cord (UC), as well as from different sections of UCs, including the amniotic membrane (AM), Wharton's jelly (WJ), and umbilical vessel (UV). Cell phenotypes were examined by flow cytometry. Lymphocyte transformation test and mixed lymphocyte reaction were performed to evaluate the immuno-modulatory activity of MSCs derived from UCs. The mRNA expression of cytokines was detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction. Hematopoietic function was studied by co-culturing MSCs with CD34(+) cells isolated from cord blood. Our results showed that MSCs separated from these four different sections including UC, WJ, UV, and AM had similar biological characteristics. All of the MSCs had multi-lineage differentiation ability and were able to differentiate into osteoblasts, adipocytes, and chondrocytes. The MSCs also inhibited the proliferation of allogeneic T cells in a dose-dependent manner. The relative mRNA expression of cytokines was examined, and the results showed that UCMSCs had higher interleukin-6 (IL6), IL11, stem cell factor, and FLT3 expression than MSCs derived from specific sections of UCs. CD34(+) cells had high propagation efficiencies when co-cultured with MSCs derived from different sections of UCs, among which UCMSCs are the most efficient feeding layer. Our study demonstrated that MSCs could be isolated from whole UC or specific sections of UC with similar immunomodulation and hematopoiesis supporting characteristics., (© The Author 2014. Published by ABBS Editorial Office in association with Oxford University Press on behalf of the Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences.)

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent cells traditionally derived from bone marrow (BM). They have been demonstrated to be widely applied in tissue regeneration and cellular therapy. As an alternative to BM, an umbilical cord (UC) is considered as a potential source of MSCs. Here, we showed that human UC-MSCs were easily isolated by a single enzymatic digestion and characteristic of plastic adherence and fibroblast-like morphology. UC-MSCs isolation was successful in 15 of 15 samples. The colony-forming unit-fibroblast frequency was obtained 54 ± 1.33 from 10³ UC-MSCs at passage 3, and the doubling time was (24.15 ± 0.49) h. Almost 10¹⁰ UC-MSCs were largely produced in about 30 days. By flow cytometry analysis, the adherent cells displayed an abundant presence of CD73, CD90 and CD105 and absence of CD34, CD45 and HLA-DR. When cultured in differentiation media, they can be differentiated into adipocytes, osteocytes and chondrocytes. RT-PCR reactions confirmed that their multidifferentiation related genes were positive. Moreover, stem cell-related transcription factors Nanog, Oct-4 and Sox-2 were positively expressed in UC-MSCs. On the basis of these findings, the single enzyme method is a good method to obtain large-scale production of MSCs from whole human UC in a short time, and the UC can be considered as a novel and convenient source of adult MSCs displaying high expansion potential and primitive pluripotent stem cells., (Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

The human umbilical cord (UC) is usually discarded as biological waste. However, it has attracted interest as a source of cells including endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which have demonstrated enormous potential in regenerative medicine. The present study describes a convenient protocol that has been developed to sequentially extract these two cell types from a single UC. EPCs which had properties of progenitor cells were successfully isolated from the UC vein. These cells had cobble-shaped morphology and expressed Flt-1, KDR, VE-cadherin, von Willebrand factor and CD31 mRNA, in addition to CD73, CD105 and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2. In addition to absorbing fluorescent-labeled acetylated low density protein and binding to fluorescein isothiocyanate-UEA-l, they were able to form vascular tube-like structures on Matrigel. Typical fibroblast-like cells, which were isolated from the Wharton's jelly, were confirmed to be MSCs by their expression of CD73, CD90 and CD105, and their ability to differentiate into adipocytes and osteoblasts. Thus, the human UC-derived cells may be suitable for use in tissue engineering and cell therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]