{"id":102049,"date":"2022-03-01T14:29:01","date_gmt":"2022-03-01T19:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/busm\/?p=102049"},"modified":"2022-03-02T15:33:31","modified_gmt":"2022-03-02T20:33:31","slug":"new-research-findings-could-help-improve-bone-marrow-stem-cell-transplantation-for-patients-with-blood-related-diseases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/2022\/03\/01\/new-research-findings-could-help-improve-bone-marrow-stem-cell-transplantation-for-patients-with-blood-related-diseases\/","title":{"rendered":"New Research Findings Could Help Improve Bone Marrow, Stem Cell Transplantation for Patients with Blood-related Diseases"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) have the capacity to both self-renew and differentiate into all mature blood cell types, making them promising treatments for a variety of diseases. However, the mechanisms involved in engraftment\u2014when the cells start to grow and make healthy blood cells after being transplanted into a patient\u2014are poorly understood. A recent study led by researchers at BUSM and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has revealed the unique signature of genes expressed by HSCs capable of undergoing this process.\u00a0The findings<\/a>, which are published in Nature Communications<\/em>, could enable scientists to expand these cells outside of the body or to convert other types of stem cells into cells that can repopulate the blood system.<\/p>\n

In adults, HSCs are found in the bone marrow and bloodstream, but before birth, they can be found to a greater extent in the liver, where they multiply, or proliferate, into additional HSCs at a very high rate. Moreover, research in animals has shown that HSCs in the fetal liver are more capable of engraftment than HSCs from bone marrow.<\/p>\n

To understand what allows fetal liver HSCs to have these superior proliferation and engraftment characteristics, investigators examined the gene expression patterns that are unique to these highly potent stem cells. They combined this examination with a variety of experimental methods to characterize the protein expression and functionality of those same cells.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis in-depth analysis revealed that these stem cells express a protein on their surface called CD201 that correlates very closely with this engraftment potential and can be used to isolate functional stem cells away from other cell types,\u201d says co\u2013senior author Alejandro B. Balazs, PhD, a principal investigator at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard.\u00a0\u201cThis will help us improve the process of bone marrow and stem cell transplantation by allowing us to purify these cells.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HeadshotThe enhanced understanding of the genes involved will also help scientists propagate HSCs with high engraftment potential in the lab and manipulate them to more efficiently fight blood cell\u2013related diseases such as sickle cell anemia, HIV and certain types of cancer. \u201cAltogether, this work has resulted in a detailed blueprint of the most potent blood stem cells and will lead to a better understanding of why these cells have such an extraordinary regenerative capacity. Such insights will allow us to create safer and more efficient therapies for patients suffering from blood disorders,\u201d says lead author Kim Vanuytsel, PhD, a research assistant professor of medicine at\u00a0BUSM.<\/p>\n

\"HeadshotCo\u2013senior author George J. Murphy, PhD, an associate professor of medicine at\u00a0BUSM and co-founder of the BU-BMC Center for Regenerative Medicine (CReM), adds that the team\u2019s openly shared resource, which has been made available in an interactive format at https:\/\/engraftable-hsc.cells.ucsc.edu<\/a>, will enable new biological insights into engraftment potential and stimulate a broad range of future studies. \u201cThis important work would not have been possible without the potent, collegial collaborations that took place between Boston area institutions. This project is also a shining example of ‘open source biology’ at work where the freely shared information and insights can be harnessed by all for future discovery,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Co-authors include Carlos Villacorta-Martin, Jonathan Lindstrom-Vautrin, Zhe Wang, Wilfredo F. Garcia-Beltran, Vladimir Vrbanac, Dylan Parsons, Evan C. Lam, Taylor M. Matte, Todd W. Dowrey, Sara S. Kumar, Mengze Li, Feiya Wang, Anthony K. Yeung, Gustavo Mostoslavsky, Ruben Dries, Joshua D. Campbell, and Anna C. Belkina.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientists uncover the unique signature of genes expressed by hematopoietic stem cells capable of making healthy blood cells after being transplanted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":903,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[91,90],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102049"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102049"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102054,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102049\/revisions\/102054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}