Adhesion Molecule Enhancement Boosts Transplant Procedures, New Study Suggests

Adhesion molecule enhancement improves the blood-forming stem cells' ability to take root in recipients of transplants.

Therapeutics that enhance the blood-forming stem cells' stickiness could help enhance bone marrow transplants' success for patients with leukemia and other disorders, a Phys.org report specified.

A KAUST-led team of researchers identified two drug treatments that boost the activity of molecules engaged in cell adhesions.

Stem cells exposed to such drugs were better able to enter the recipient mice's bloodstream, make their way to the bone marrow and begin to make new blood.

Short-Term Hematopoietic Stem Cells

According to Asma Al-Amoodi, the study author and a Ph.D. student in Jasmeen Merzaban's lab at KAUST. The author also said such information is indispensable for researchers and clinicians, as it will guide which stem cell populations are selected for which therapeutics may be used before the injection to increase the success and results of the transplantation process.

Essentially, Saudi Arabia was the first Arab state to carry out a bone marrow transplant back in the early 1980s, and now hardly a day goes by without an individual in the country getting an infusion of healthy donor-derived hematopoietic stem cells or HSCs, to replace those lost or impaired by certain diseases.

However, the type of stem cells such a transplant contains are not all the same. Furthermore, the majority are "short-term" HSCs.

Such cells can give rise to all white blood cells, providing a reprieve from disease or even cancer.

However, the cells have limited capacity for self-renewal, a biological weakness that restrains the duration of their treatment benefit.

A Potential for Blood-Forming System's Prolonged Reconstitution

A different population of unusual stem cells can potentially prolong the blood-forming system's reconstitution.

The long-term HSCs can both uphold the stem cell pool and distinguish them from their short-term kin, making them ideal from the therapeutic standpoint.

However, long-term HSCs have their disadvantage. Specifically, they are not specifically adept at engraftment, the process of taking root in transplant recipients, and KUST scientists have now discovered the reason.

Merzaban, along with her lab group, compared to short-term HSCs, the key adhesion molecules' reduced expression in long-term HSCs explained their poor engraftment ability.

Stem Cell Adhesion Boosted

The scientists then discovered a drug type commonly used for diabetes treatment; when added to long-term HSCs, this drug changed the dynamics of cell surface adhesion molecules in ways that enhanced the uptake of the cells in mice.

Another adhesion-targeted treatment type augmented the augmented as well, the potential of short-term HSCs, and, as specified in the study published in the Blood Advances journal, as an added bonus, "it made the cell behave more like their long-term counterparts."

Next, Merzaban hopes to test the approach with human stem cells and recipients. The study findings suggest that by boosting the adhesion of such stem cells, the ability of both HSC population types to migrate, engraft, and provide functional blood cells to patients.

Related information about stem cell transplants is shown on MD Anderson Cancer Center's YouTube video below:

Check out more news and information on Stem Cells in Science Times.