title: Pharmacological preconditioning for short-term ex vivo expansion of human umbilical cord blood hematopoietic stem cells by filgrastim.
abstract: Although umbilical cord blood (UCB) hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (UCBT) has emerged as a promising haematological reconstitution therapy for leukemias and other related disorders, the insufficient UCB stem cell dosage still hinders better clinical outcomes. Previous research efforts, by focusing on ex vivo UCB expansion capabilities have sought to benefit from well-known mechanisms of self-renewal characteristics of UCB stem cells. However, the long-term (> 21 days) in vitro culture period and the low neutrophil recovery significantly reduce the transplantability of such ex vivo expanded UCB stem cells. To overcome the latter hurdles in this study, a post-thaw, short-term ex vivo expansion methodology of UCB mononuclear (UCB-MN) and CD34(+) cells has been established. Notably, such effort was achieved through pharmacological preconditioned of UCB cultures by filgrastim agent already used in the clinical setting. In crucial cell populations implicated in the promotion of functional engraftment, the progression of free survival rates (PFS), a marked increase of 6.65 to 9.34 fold for UCB-MN and 35 to 49 fold for CD34(+) cells has been noticed. Overall, these results indicate that transplantation of pharmacologically-preconditioned ex vivo expansion of UCB stem and progenitor cells keep high promise upon transplantation to enhance therapeutic potential in everyday clinical practice.
authors.affiliation: Genetics and IVF Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Medical School, Ioannina UniversityGr 45110 Ioannina, Greece; Biogenea Pharmaceuticals Cord Blood BankGr 546 27 Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Nikolaos G
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Grigoriadis
authors.affiliation: Biogenea Pharmaceuticals Cord Blood Bank Gr 546 27 Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Ioannis G
authors.initials: IG
authors.lastname: Grigoriadis
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Ioannina Gr 45110 Ioannina, Greece.
authors.forename: Sofia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Markoula
authors.affiliation: Genetics and IVF Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Medical School, Ioannina University Gr 45110 Ioannina, Greece.
authors.forename: Minas
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Paschopoulos
authors.affiliation: Genetics and IVF Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Medical School, Ioannina University Gr 45110 Ioannina, Greece.
authors.forename: Konstantinos
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zikopoulos
authors.affiliation: Rea Maternity Hospital Ampelokipoi, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Panagiotis Gr
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Apostolakopoulos
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Pharmacology, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Aristotle University of ThessalonikiGr 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece; Department of Life and Health Sciences, University of Nicosia1700 Nicosia, Cyprus.
authors.forename: Ioannis S
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Vizirianakis
authors.affiliation: Genetics and IVF Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Medical School, Ioannina University Gr 45110 Ioannina, Greece.
authors.forename: Ioannis
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Georgiou
keywords: Post-thaw; ex vivo expansion; filgrastim; hematopoietic stem cell transplantation; pharmacological preconditioning