StemCo Biomedical, Inc. is developing devices enabling detection, enumeration, and isolation of novel hematopoietic stem and progenitor [HSP] cell populations for use in treatment of cancer, autoimmune diseases, and genetic diseases. StemCo kits will allow stem cell processing laboratories, including umbilical cord blood [UCB] cell banks to use flow cytometers to enumerate HSP cells that express high levels of the intracellular enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase [""""""""ALDH bright cells""""""""] This research program will demonstrate one important advantage of the StemCo technology -- that significant numbers of ALDH bright cells are not detected by conventional methods of HSP enumeration based on expression of the CD34 surface antigen expression and that these ALDH bright cells are likely to be important In determining clinical outcome. We willuse flow sorting to isolate subpopulations of ALDH bright UCB cells based on CD34 expression and then assay the developmental potential of each population in vitro and in vivo. Prospective and retrospective studies will show if the number of ALDH bright cells, or subpopulation of these cells defined by CD34 expression, predicts important short and long term clinical outcomes. We will also determine if StemCo?s ALDH technology can be used to monitor HSP development during ex vivo expansion of UCB cells for transplantation. Finally, we will determine if ALDH bright umbilical cord blood cells have the potential to differentiate into tissue types other than blood cells in the fetal sheep xenograft model. These efforts will complement StemCo efforts to develop kits to enumerate HSP in other tissues and to create sterile, disposable kits that will enable HSP manufacturers to isolate ALDH bright cells for transplantation by cell sorting. These studies will inform design of research on the clinical outcomes of transplanting ALDH bright cells and of clinical trials of StemCo kits for isolating HSP cells.
This research will asssist in the design and prove the utility of disposable kits that will enable blood stem cell transplant centers to better enumerate and isolate hematopoetic stem cells from umbilical cord blood for use in humans. The work will also indicate if these products will be useful in blood stem cell expansion or in isolation of other types of stem cells.
