Mobilisation, Isolation and Coculture of Haematopoietic Stem Cells

• Main Author: Jing, Duohui
• Other Authors: Technische Universität Dresden, Medizinische Fakultät Carl Gustav Carus
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden 2011
• Subjects: HSC; mobilisation; isolation; Culture; In vitro; ddc:610; rvk:WE 2400
• Online Access: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-39915; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-39915; http://www.qucosa.de/fileadmin/data/qucosa/documents/3991/PhD_Thesis_D_Jing.pdf

Since decades, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) has become a well established treatment modality for hematological malignancies and non-malignant disorders. Autologous and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) mobilized into the peripheral blood (PB) have been used as a preferred source of transplantable stem cells1-3. And umbilical cord blood (UCB) has been introduced as a more attractive HSC source for HSCT, because fetal stem cells in UCB are speculated to be more primitive in comparison to adult stem cells. However the limited amount of HSCs is limiting their application for stem cell therapy in clinic. Therefore, people started to utilize extra-embryonic tissue to harvest more fetal stem cells, while people also tried to optimize the clinical protocol to mobilize more adult stem cells out of adult bone marrow. The innovative strategies and feasible procedures were discussed in this thesis. The axis of the chemokine receptor CXCR4 and its ligand SDF-1 is important for trafficking and homing of HSCs. It has already been demonstrated that the bicyclam AMD3100, a CXCR4 antagonist, in combination with G-CSF is able to induce a significant mobilization of CD34+ cells4. And human placenta is a potent hematopoietic niche containing hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells throughout development5. The homing of HSCs to the placenta is probably also mediated by the expression of SDF-1 as demonstrated for the bone marrow niche. In this study (part 1 of the chapter “Results and discussions”), we utilized AMD3100 to mobilize HSCs from placenta. And we can demonstrate that the CXCR4 antagonist AMD3100 mobilise placenta derived CD34+ cells ex utero already after 30 min of incubation and may further enhance the efficacy of harvesting placenta-derived HSC. The alpha4 integrin CD49d is involved in migration and homing of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC). Therapeutic application of natalizumab, an anti-CD49d antibody, in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) has been associated with increased levels of circulating CD34+ progenitors. In our study (part 2 of the chapter “Results and discussions”), we compared circulating HSCs from MS patients after natalizumab treatment and HSCs mobilized by G-CSF in healthy volunteers, with regard to their migratory potential, clonogenicity and gene expression. CD34+ cells in the blood and marrow of natalizumab-treated patients expressed less of the stem cell marker CD133, were enriched for erythroid progenitors (CFU-E) and expressed lower levels of adhesion molecules. The level of surface CXCR-4 expression on CD34+ cells from patients treated with natalizumab was higher compared to that of CD34+ cells mobilized by granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) (median 43.9% vs. 15.1%). This was associated with a more than doubled migration capacity towards a chemokine stimulus. Furthermore, CD34+ cells mobilized by natalizumab contained more m-RNA for p21 and less MMP9 compared to G-CSF mobilised HSC. Our data indicate that G-CSF and CD49d blockade mobilize different HSC subsets and suggest that both strategies may be differentially applied in specific cell therapy approaches. In order to further improve the clinical outcome of HSC transplantation, many groups are focusing on ex vivo maintain or expand HSC. Unfortunately, the maintenance of HSC in vitro is difficult to achieve because of their differentiation. This is presumably caused by a lack of appropriate cues that are provided in vivo by the microenvironment. Indeed, HSCs located in the bone marrow are interacting with a specific microenvironment referred to as the stem cell niche, which regulates their fate in terms of quiescence, self-renewal and differentiation. An orchestra of signals mediated by soluble factors and/or cell-to-cell contact keeps the balance and homeostasis of self-renewal, proliferation and differentiation in vivo. To investigate the communication between HSCs and the niche, coculture assays with mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) were performed in vitro. Here, we can demonstrate that cell-to-cell contact has a significant impact on hematopoietic stem cells expansion, migratory potential and stemness. In this study (part 3 of the chapter “Results and discussions”), we investigated in more detail the spatial relationship between hematopoietic stem cells and mesenchymal stromal cells during ex-vivo expansion. And we defined three distinct localizations of HSCs relative to MSC layer: (i) those in supernatant (non-adherent cells); (ii) cells adhering on the surface of mesenchymal stromal cells (phase-bright cells) and (iii) cells beneath the mesenchymal stromal cells (phase-dim cells). Our data suggest that the mesenchymal stromal cell surface is the dominant location where hematopoietic stem cells proliferate, whereas the compartment beneath the mesenchymal stromal cell layer seems to be mimicking the stem cell niche for more immature cells. Our data provide novel insight into the construction and function of three-dimensional HSC–MSC microenvironments. In summary, we provided a new method to isolate fetal stem cells from extra-embryonic tissue (i.e. placenta) in the first part, then we discussed an innovative strategy with CD49d blockade to improve clinical modality for adult stem cell mobilization in the second part, and finally we investigated HSC maintenance and expansion in vitro and provided feasible way to mimic HSC niche in vitro in the last part. This thesis contributes to HSC-based stem cell therapy in two aspects, i.e. 1) fetal and adult stem cell isolation holding great therapeutic potential for blood diseases; 2) ex vivo stem cell manipulation providing a valuable platform to model HSC niche regulation.