There have been a number of activities in the BMSCTC during the past year. Using the Centers approved bone marrow acquisition protocol (10-CC-0053 - Collection of Bone Marrow from Healthy Volunteers and Patients for the Production of Clinical Bone Marrow Stromal Cell (BMSC) Products, Stroncek, CC, PI), a bank of frozen BMSCs has been established for allogeneic use. Bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) have been used to treat acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and other complications following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (SCT). a phase I trial (12-H-0010 - A Phase I Study of Bone Marrow Stromal Cell Infusions to Treat Acute Graft Versus Host Disease, Marrow Failure and Tissue Injury After Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation, Battiwalla and Barrett, NHLBI, PIs) using third party, early passage BMSCs for patients with steroid-refractory GVHD, tissue injury, or marrow failure following SCT to investigate safety and efficacy was completed. To identify mechanisms of BMSC immunomodulation and tissue repair, patients were serially monitored for plasma GVHD biomarkers, cytokines, and lymphocyte phenotype. Ten subjects were infused a fixed dose of 2 10(6) BMSCs/kg intravenously weekly for three doses. There was no treatment-related toxicity (primary endpoint). Eight subjects were evaluable for response at 4 weeks after the last infusion. Five of the seven patients with steroid-refractory acute GVHD achieved a complete response, two of two patients with tissue injury (pneumomediastinum/pneumothorax) achieved resolution but there was no response in two subjects with delayed marrow failure. Rapid reductions in inflammatory cytokines were observed. Clinical responses correlated with a fall in biomarkers (Reg 3α, CK18, and Elafin) relevant for the site of GVHD or tissue injury. The GVHD complete responders survived significantly longer and had higher baseline absolute lymphocyte and central memory CD4 and CD8 counts. Cytokine changes also segregated with survival. These results confirm that BMSCs are associated with rapid clinical and biomarker responses in GVHD and tissue injury. However, BMSCs were ineffective in patients with prolonged GVHD with lower lymphocyte counts, which suggest that effective GVHD control by BMSCs requires a relatively intact immune system. The allogeneic cells are also being used in a trial to treat inflammatory bowel disease (13-I-0077 - An Open-Label, Phase 1 Study to Assess the Safety and Tolerability of Bone Marrow Stromal Cell Infusion for the treatment of Moderate to Severe Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Fuss, NIAID, PI), currently in patient accrual. Autologous cells were generated for direct use (no freezing) in patients under going coronary artery bypass grafting and trans myocardial laser revascularization (12-H-0078 - Preliminary Assessment of Direct Intra-Myocardial Injection of Autologous Bone Marrow-derived Stromal Cells on Patients Undergoing Revascularization for CAD with Depressed Left Ventricular Function, Robey, NIDCR, PI and Horvath, NHLBI, LAI). Nine patients have been treated to date. In addition to preparing clinical grade BMSCs, the Center also has been developing techniques to better monitor their biological activity during ex vivo expansion. The outcomes of clinical trials using bone marrow stromal cell BMSC are variable;the degree of the expansion of BMSCs during clinical manufacturing may contribute to this variability since cell expansion is limited by senescence. Human BMSCs from aspirates of healthy subjects were subcultured serially until cell growth stopped. Phenotype and functional measurements of BMSCs from two subjects including senescence-associated beta-galactosidase staining and colony formation efficiency changed from an early to a senescence pattern at passage 6 or 7. Transcriptome analysis of 10 early and 15 late passage BMSC samples from 5 subjects revealed 2122 differentially expressed genes, which were associated with immune response, development, and cell proliferation pathways. Analysis of 57 serial BMSC samples from 7 donors revealed that the change from an early to senescent profile was variable among subjects and occurred prior to changes in phenotypes. BMSC age expressed as a percentage of maximum population doublings (PDs) was a good indicator for an early or senescence transcription signature but this measure of BMSC life span can only be calculated after expanding BMSCs to senescence. In order to find a more useful surrogate measure of BMSC age, we used a computational biology approach to identify a set of genes whose expression at each passage would predict elapsed age of BMSCs. A total of 155 genes were highly correlated with BMSC age. A least angle regression algorithm identified a set of 24 BMSC age-predictive genes. The onset of senescence-associated molecular changes was variable and preceded changes in other indicators of BMSC quality and senescence. The 24 BMSC age predictive genes will be useful in assessing the quality of clinical BMSC products.
| Stroncek, David F; Sabatino, Marianna; Ren, Jiaqiang et al. (2014) Establishing a bone marrow stromal cell transplant program at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. Tissue Eng Part B Rev 20:200-5 |
| Yin, Fang; Battiwalla, Minoo; Ito, Sawa et al. (2014) Bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells to treat tissue damage in allogeneic stem cell transplant recipients: correlation of biological markers with clinical responses. Stem Cells 32:1278-88 |
| Ren, Jiaqiang; Stroncek, David F; Zhao, Yingdong et al. (2013) Intra-subject variability in human bone marrow stromal cell (BMSC) replicative senescence: molecular changes associated with BMSC senescence. Stem Cell Res 11:1060-73 |
