Different strategies to improve the use of the umbilical cord and cord blood for hematopoietic and other regenerative cell therapies

Abstract

The umbilical cord and cord blood contain stem cells that can be used for regenerative cell therapies such as hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. However, the application of cord blood is hindered by the slow engraftment of the cells and delayed immune reconstitution compared to stem cells of other sources such as bone marrow. This thesis focuses on ways to improve CB application from both the perspective of the patient (i.e. better engraftment) as well as from the cost perspective (i.e. wider applicability). To this aim, we investigated (combinations of) methods for the improvement of CB engraftment in a murine engraftment model for human hematopoietic cells. Besides our focus on the PB recovery of platelets and CD45+ cells, we furthermore looked at practical aspects of the application of CB such as the possibility of banking expanded cells, banking CB for other purposes than HST and the use of other extra-fetal (embryonic) tissues such as the umbilical cord.