Analysis of the risk factors for hemorrhagic cystitis after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for beta-thalassemia in children / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To analyze the risk factors of hemorrhagic cystitis after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for beta-thalassemia in children.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The clinical records of 30 children with beta-thalassemia undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation between December, 2008 and November, 2009 were analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Hemorrhagic cystitis occurred in 8 of the 33 patients with an incidence of 24.24%, including 1 with grade I, 6 with grade II and 1 with grade III hemorrhagic cystitis. The median time of hemorrhagic cystitis onset was 22.9 days (range 6-35 days) and the median duration was 11.9 days(range 3-27 days). Univariate analysis indicated that the different types of transplantation and acute graft-versus-host disease affect the occurrence of hemorrhagic cystitis. The children with Allo-PBSCT had higher incidence than those receiving Allo-PBSCT+Allo-UBT and Allo-BMT (P<0.05). The children at an age >or=6 years had obviously higher incidence of hemorrhagic cystitis than those at younger ages.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Age is the major factor that affects the occurrence of hemorrhagic cystitis in children undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for beta-thalassemia.</p>

The expansion and biological characteristics of human mesenchymal stem cells / 中华儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were adult stem cells which contribute to the regeneration of mesenchymal tissues such as bone cartilage, muscle, ligament, tendon, adipose and stroma. Due to the multipotential ability and self-renewal capacity, the mesenchymal stem cells can be applied in many fields, such as the seed cells in tissues engineering, cell therapy and gene therapy. To enhance the clinical use of MSCs, the investigators studied the isolation and expansion of MSCs from adult bone marrow, fetal bone marrow and human umbilical cord blood, and investigated their biological identities.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Two kinds of incubation systems containing L-DMEM or MSC special culture medium were used to purify and expand MSCs. The growth, purification and proliferative abilities of 3 kinds of MSCs were observed and their immunophenotypes were determined by flow-cytometry.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>(1) The shapes of 3 kinds of cells were same. There was no difference in number and size. The colonies formed early in adult bone marrow MSCs. (2) There was no difference in the expansion speed of the 3 kinds of MSCs, but after the colonies confluenced there had no touching constrain in MSCs from umbilical cord blood and fetal bone marrow. When the colonies confluenced, the cells also had proliferation ability. But in adult bone marrow, the touching constrain was significant. (3) MSCs had strong self-renewal capacity. After primary culture approximately 5 - 6 x 10(5) MSCs were obtained from 8 x 10(6) MNC of bone marrow and 25 x 10(6) MNC of umbilical cord blood. After passage 3, passage 5 and passage 10, the investigators could get 10(7), 10(8) and 10(10) MSCs, respectively. (4) Along with the increase in the passage and prolonging of culture time, the ability of expansion decreased, but they maintained good puripotentiality. After passage 2, passage 3 and passage 5, the purity of MSCs was 90%, 95% and 99%, respectively. (5) Three kinds of MSCs were all positive for CD(29), CD(44), CD(59), CD(90), CD(105), CD(166) and all negative for the markers of hematopoietic cells such as CD(11a), CD(14), CD(33), CD(34), CD(28), CD(45). All the important GVHD correlation markers were negative, such as HLA-DR, B7-1 (CD(80)), B7-2 (CD(86)), CD(40) and CD(40L). There were no differences in the phenotype among the 3 kinds of MSCs cells. (6) The 2 kinds of culture mediums used did not markedly affect isolation and expansion of MSCs, and the biological properties of MSCs.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>(1) Human MSCs could be isolated from many kinds of human tissues, and they had no difference in their origin; (2) Human MSCs maintained good puripotentiality and self-renewal capacity. Therefore, they could meet with the need of clinical tissue engineering. (3) The negative GVHD correlated markers might result from the fact that MSCs had no HLA barrier but had broad clinical use.</p>

The experimental study on inducing and expanding T/NK cells from mononuclear cells of human umbilical cord blood / 中华血液学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the most efficient culture system which can induce cord blood (CB)-mononuclear cells (MNC) to differentiate into mature T/NK cells in vitro.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The CB MNCs were cultured in six culture systems respectively for 4 weeks. The T/NK cell surface phenotypes were analyzed by flow cytometry and the absolute numbers of nucleated cells (NCs) were counted at each time point. Moreover, cell morphology was identified by Giemsa-Wright staining, and cytotoxicity of the cultured cells to K562 and Raji tumor cells was also evaluated by MTT method.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Cultured in the cytokine cocktail of SCF + FLT-3L + IL-7 + IL-15 + TNF-alpha + IL-2, the NCs were (20 approximately 26) x 10(6)/ml in numbers at day 22. The percentage of lymphocytes in the NCs and that of CD(3)(+) T cells in the lymphocytes both exceeded 90% at the same time. Most of the CD(3)(+) T cells were CD(3)(+)CD(8)(+) and the percentage of CD(3)(+)CD(4)(+) T cells declined gradually. The percentage of CD(3)(+)CD(56)(+) NKT cells and gamma delta(+)T cells in the lymphocytes arised from lower than 2% to 30% approximately 40% and 10% approximately 15%, respectively. CD(3)(-)CD(56)(+) NK cells were not expanded. The cytotoxic activity of the cultured cells to K562 and Raji cells at an effector:target (E:T) ratio of 50:1 was over 75% and about 32% approximately 65%, respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The most efficient culture system which can induce CB MNC to differentiate into mature T/NK cells in vitro is the cytokines cocktail of SCF + FLT-3L + IL-7 + IL-15 + TNF-alpha + IL-2, and the optimum culture time is 22 days.</p>