Direct comparison of the immunogenicity of major histocompatibility complex-I and -II deficient mesenchymal stem cells in vivo

Cell-Based Therapy for Fibrosing Interstitial Lung Diseases, Current Status, and Potential Applications of iPSC-Derived Cells

Fibrosing interstitial lung diseases (FILDs), e.g., due to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), are chronic progressive diseases with a poor prognosis. The management of these diseases is challenging and focuses mainly on the suppression of progression with anti-fibrotic drugs. Therefore, novel FILD treatments are needed. In recent years, cell-based therapy with various stem cells has been investigated for FILD, and the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) has been widely reported and clinical studies are also ongoing. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have also been reported to have an anti-fibrotic effect in FILD; however, these have not been as well studied as MSCs in terms of the mechanisms and side effects. While MSCs show a potent anti-fibrotic effect, the possibility of quality differences between donors and a stable supply in the case of donor shortage or reduced proliferative capacity after cell passaging needs to be considered. The application of iPSC-derived cells has the potential to overcome these problems and may lead to consistent quality of the cell product and stable product supply. This review provides an overview of iPSCs and FILD, followed by the current status of cell-based therapy for FILD, and then discusses the possibilities and perspectives of FILD therapy with iPSC-derived cells.

Expansion of human umbilical cord derived mesenchymal stem cells in regenerative medicine

BACKGROUND

Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that possess the potential for self-renewal with the capacity to differentiate into multiple lineages. In humans, their limited numbers pose a challenge in fulfilling the necessary demands for the regeneration and repair of damaged tissues or organs. Studies suggested that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), necessary for repair and regeneration via transplantation, require doses ranging from 10 to 400 million cells. Furthermore, the limited expansion of MSCs restricts their therapeutic application.

AIM

To optimize a novel protocol to achieve qualitative and quantitative expansion of MSCs to reach the targeted number of cells for cellular transplantation and minimize the limitations in stem cell therapy protocols.

METHODS

Human umbilical cord (hUC) tissue derived MSCs were obtained and re-cultured. These cultured cells were subjected to the following evaluation procedures: Immunophenotyping, immunocytochemical staining, trilineage differentiation, population doubling time and number, gene expression markers for proliferation, cell cycle progression, senescence-associated β-galactosidase assay, human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) expression, mycoplasma, cytomegalovirus and endotoxin detection.

RESULTS

Analysis of pluripotent gene markers Oct4, Sox2, and Nanog in recultured hUC-MSC revealed no significant differences. The immunophenotypic markers CD90, CD73, CD105, CD44, vimentin, CD29, Stro-1, and Lin28 were positively expressed by these recultured expanded MSCs, and were found negative for CD34, CD11b, CD19, CD45, and HLA-DR. The recultured hUC-MSC population continued to expand through passage 15. Proliferative gene expression of Pax6, BMP2, and TGFb1 showed no significant variation between recultured hUC-MSC groups. Nevertheless, a significant increase (P < 0.001) in the mitotic phase of the cell cycle was observed in recultured hUC-MSCs. Cellular senescence markers (hTERT expression and β-galactosidase activity) did not show any negative effect on recultured hUC-MSCs. Additionally, quality control assessments consistently confirmed the absence of mycoplasma, cytomegalovirus, and endotoxin contamination.

CONCLUSION

This study proposes the development of a novel protocol for efficiently expanding stem cell population. This would address the growing demand for larger stem cell doses needed for cellular transplantation and will significantly improve the feasibility of stem cell based therapies.

Comparing the Benefits and Drawbacks of Stem Cell Therapy Based on the Cell Origin or Manipulation Process: Addressing Immunogenicity

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are effective in treating autoimmune diseases and managing various conditions, such as engraftment of allogeneic islets. Additionally, autologous and HLA-matched allogeneic MSCs can aid in the engraftment of human allogeneic kidneys with or without low doses of tacrolimus, respectively. However, HLA alloantigens are problematic because cell therapy uses more HLA-mismatched allogeneic cells than autologous for convenience and standardization. In particular, HLA-mismatched MSCs showed increased Ag-specific T/B cells and reduced viability faster than HLA-matched MSCs. In CRISPR/Cas9-based cell therapy, Cas9 induce T cell activation in the recipient's immune system. Interestingly, despite their immunogenicity being limited to the cells with foreign Ags, the accumulation of HLA alloantigen-sensitized T/B cells may lead to allograft rejection, suggesting that alloantigens may have a greater scope of adverse effects than foreign Ags. To avoid alloantigen recognition, the β2-microglobulin knockout (B2MKO) system, eliminating class-I MHC, was able to avoid rejection by alloreactive CD8 T cells compared to controls. Moreover, universal donor cells in which both B2M and Class II MHC transactivator (CIITA) were knocked out was more effective in avoiding immune rejection than single KO. However, B2MKO and CIITA KO system remain to be controlled and validated for adverse effects such as the development of tumorigenicity due to deficient Ag recognition by CD8 T and CD4 T cells, respectively. Overall, better HLA-matching or depletion of HLA alloantigens prior to cell therapy can reduce repetitive transplantation through the long-term survival of allogeneic cell therapy, which may be especially important for patients seeking allogeneic transplantation.

High Targeting Specificity toward Pulmonary Inflammation Using Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Hybrid Nanovehicle for an Efficient Inflammation Intervention

Pulmonary inflammation is one of the most reported tissue inflammations in clinic. Successful suppression of inflammation is vital to prevent further inevitably fatal lung degeneration. Glucocorticoid hormone, such as methylprednisolone (MP), is the most applied strategy to control the inflammatory progression yet faces the challenge of systemic side effects caused by the requirement of large-dosage and frequent administration. Highly efficient delivery of MP specifically targeted to inflammatory lung sites may overcome this challenge. Therefore, the present study develops an inflammation-targeted biomimetic nanovehicle, which hybridizes the cell membrane of mesenchymal stem cell with liposome, named as MSCsome. This hybrid nanovehicle shows the ability of high targeting specificity toward inflamed lung cells, due to both the good lung endothelium penetration and the high uptake by inflamed lung cells. Consequently, a single-dose administration of this MP-loaded hybrid nanovehicle achieves a prominent treatment of lipopolysaccharide-induced lung inflammation, and negligible treatment-induced side effects are observed. The present study provides a powerful inflammation-targeted nanovehicle using biomimetic strategy to solve the current challenges of targeted inflammation intervention.

Hypoxic preconditioned aged BMSCs accelerates MI injury repair by modulating inflammation, oxidative stress and apoptosis

The benefits of autologous cell therapy for cardiac repair are diminished in aged individuals due to the limited quality and poor tolerance of aged stem cells in the ischemic micro-environment. The safe and efficient methods to improve the therapeutic effect of aged stem cells are needed to treat the increasing number of aged patients with cardiac diseases. In the present study, we aimed to determine whether hypoxic preconditioning can improve the therapeutic effect of aged stem cells even if the responsiveness of aged MSCs is poor, and to seek the underlying mechanism. Using a murine model of MI, our results showed that hypoxic preconditioning promoted the therapeutic effect of aged BMSCs, which was expressed in improved cardiac function, decreased scar size and alleviated cardiac remodeling in vivo. This in vivo effect of hypoxic preconditioned aged BMSCs was associated with alleviated inflammation, oxidative stress and apoptosis in infarcted heart. In vitro studies confirmed that hypoxic preconditioned aged BMSCs exert cytoprotective impacts on H9C2 cells against lethal hypoxia injury via attenuating oxidative stress and apoptosis. Our data support the promise of hypoxic preconditioning as a potential strategy to improve autologous stem cell therapy for ischemic heart injury in aged individuals.