Project description:Transplantation with low numbers of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), found in many of the publically accessible cryopreserved umbilical cord blood (UCB) units, leads to delayed time to engraftment, high graft failure rates, and early mortality in many patients. A chemical screen in zebrafish identified the prostaglandin compound, 16,16 dimethyl prostaglandin E2 (dmPGE2), to be a critical regulator of hematopoietic stem cell homeostasis. We hypothesized that an ex vivo modulation with dmPGE2 prior to transplantation would lead to enhanced engraftment by increasing the “effective” dose of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in cord blood. A phase I trial of reduced-intensity double UCB transplantation was performed to evaluate safety, rates of engraftment and fractional chimerism of dmPGE2 enhanced UCB units. To explore potential causes of the lack of enhanced efficacy in the first cohort, we characterized HSCs to determine whether the prostaglandin pathway was being activated under the ex vivo incubation conditions (4°C, 10µM dmPGE2, 60 minutes). Incubation conditions were identified (37°C, 10µM dmPGE2, 120 minutes) that maximize the activation of the prostaglandin pathway by dmPGE2 in human CD34+ cells. Isolated human CD34+ from umbilical cord blood were incubated ex vivo in Stem Span media with 10uM 16,16-dmPGE2 or DMSO. Two treatment conditions were evaluated (4 deg C for 1 hour, 37 deg C for 2 hours) with either 3 or 7 biological replicates at each condition. Total RNA was isolated post incubation and analyzed on Affymetrix microarrays for pathway activation.
Project description:The objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of using a reduced-intensity condition (RIC) regimen with umbilical cord blood transplant (UCBT), double cord UCBT, matched unrelated donor (MUD) bone marrow transplant (BMT) or peripheral blood stem cell transplant (PBSCT) in patients with non-malignant disorders that are amenable to treatment with hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT). After transplant, subjects will be followed for late effects and for ongoing graft success.
Project description:Transplantation with low numbers of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), found in many of the publically accessible cryopreserved umbilical cord blood (UCB) units, leads to delayed time to engraftment, high graft failure rates, and early mortality in many patients. A chemical screen in zebrafish identified the prostaglandin compound, 16,16 dimethyl prostaglandin E2 (dmPGE2), to be a critical regulator of hematopoietic stem cell homeostasis. We hypothesized that an ex vivo modulation with dmPGE2 prior to transplantation would lead to enhanced engraftment by increasing the “effective” dose of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in cord blood. A phase I trial of reduced-intensity double UCB transplantation was performed to evaluate safety, rates of engraftment and fractional chimerism of dmPGE2 enhanced UCB units. To explore potential causes of the lack of enhanced efficacy in the first cohort, we characterized HSCs to determine whether the prostaglandin pathway was being activated under the ex vivo incubation conditions (4°C, 10µM dmPGE2, 60 minutes). Incubation conditions were identified (37°C, 10µM dmPGE2, 120 minutes) that maximize the activation of the prostaglandin pathway by dmPGE2 in human CD34+ cells.
Project description:Umbilical cord blood (UCB) is a valuable source of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) for use in allogeneic transplantation. Key advantages of UCB are rapid availability and less stringent requirements for HLA matching. However, UCB contains an inherently limited HSC count, which is associated with delayed time to engraftment, high graft failure rates and early mortality. 16,16 dimethyl prostaglandin E2 (dmPGE2) was previously identified to be a critical regulator of HSC homeostasis and we hypothesized that a brief ex vivo modulation could improve patient outcomes by increasing the “effective dose” of HSCs. Molecular profiling with Affymetrix GeneChips were used to evaluate if increasing the concentration of prostaglandin could compensate for the reduced biological responses observed with incubations at 4 deg C. Isolated human CD34+ from umbilical cord blood were incubated ex vivo in Stem Span (SS) media evaluating three concentrations of 16,16-dmPGE2 (10uM, 50uM, and 100uM) or Vehicle (DMSO) for 2 hours at 4 deg C. To evaluate if increasing the concentration of prostaglandin could compensate for the reduced biological responses observed with incubations at 4 deg C. Total RNA was isolated post incubation and analyzed on Affymetrix microarrays for pathway activation.
Project description:Umbilical cord blood (UCB) is a valuable source of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) for use in allogeneic transplantation. Key advantages of UCB are rapid availability and less stringent requirements for HLA matching. However, UCB contains an inherently limited HSC count, which is associated with delayed time to engraftment, high graft failure rates and early mortality. 16,16 dimethyl prostaglandin E2 (dmPGE2) was previously identified to be a critical regulator of HSC homeostasis and we hypothesized that a brief ex vivo modulation could improve patient outcomes by increasing the "effective dose" of HSCs. Molecular profiling with Affymetrix GeneChips were used to evaluate if increasing the concentration of prostaglandin at 25 and 37 deg C could increase biological responses. Isolated human CD34+ cells from umbilical cord blood were incubated ex vivo in Stem Span (SS) media evaluating five concentrations of 16,16-dmPGE2 (0.1uM, 1uM, 10uM, 50uM, and 100uM) or Vehicle (DMSO) for 2 hours at 25 or 37 deg C. Total RNA was isolated post incubation and analyzed on Affymetrix microarrays for pathway activation.
Project description:Umbilical cord blood banking is critical for the success of umbilical cord blood transplants. Here we analyzed transcriptomic differences between 27-year cryopreserved umbilical cord blood hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and multipotent progenitor cells (MPPs) and those derived from fresh cord blood. We also leveraged differences in engraftment capacity to examine the transcriptomes of HSCs/HPCs defined by engraftment capacity, demonstrating the feasibility of this approach for identifying potency markers to aid in the selection of cord blood units for transplantation and revealing novel potential regulators of cord blood HSC/HPC engraftment.
Project description:Umbilical cord blood (UCB) is a valuable source of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) for use in allogeneic transplantation. Key advantages of UCB are rapid availability and less stringent requirements for HLA matching. However, UCB contains an inherently limited HSC count, which is associated with delayed time to engraftment, high graft failure rates and early mortality. 16,16 dimethyl prostaglandin E2 (dmPGE2) was previously identified to be a critical regulator of HSC homeostasis and we hypothesized that a brief ex vivo modulation could improve patient outcomes by increasing the “effective dose” of HSCs. Molecular profiling with Affymetrix GeneChips were used to evaluate if prostgandin is required for the entire 2 hour incubation to elicit the maximum pathway activated gene expression response. Isolated human CD34+ from umbilical cord blood were incubated ex vivo in Stem Span (SS) media with 10uM 16,16-dimethyl prostaglandin E2 for varying amounts of time within a two hour incubation window to evaluate if the entire 120 minutes is required to elicit the maximum pathway activated gene expression response or if shorter incubation times were sufficent. Total RNA was isolated post incubation and analyzed on Affymetrix microarrays for pathway activation.
Project description:This study will determine the safety and applicability of experimental forms of umbilical cord blood (UCB) transplantation for patients with high risk hematologic malignancies who might benefit from a hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) but who do not have a standard donor option (no available HLA-matched related donor (MRD), HLA-matched unrelated donor (MUD)), or single UCB unit with adequate cell number and HLA-match).