Use of blood cells in regenerative medicine
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A study utilising hematopoietic cells to investigate function, immunogenicity and cryopreservation of regenerative cellular therapies
IRAS ID
208854
Contact name
Kourosh Saeb-Parsy
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Cambridge
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
There are currently 7,000 people in the UK waiting to receive an while organ transplant while last year alone, over 1,300 people died whilst on the waiting list for a suitable organ. Conditions requiring transplant such as liver diseases, diabetes, and kidney failure are becoming increasingly common, with the supply of suitable donor organs unable to adequately match demand. Cellular therapies are a potential solution to this current shortage, either as a temporary treatment before whole organ transplantation or, eventually, as a replacement for whole organ transplant completely. However, before any cellular therapies can be put into use within a clinical setting it is essential to assess the immunogenicity of the cells. Mouse models are a method of interrogating the interaction of a cellular therapy with human immune cells, thus providing the best available insight into the immunogenicity of these treatments in patients. While multiple types of models exist, reconstitution of immunodeficient mice with mature human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) or haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are most effective – allowing for immediate reconstitution with a complete range of adult lymphocytes.
Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation used for treatment of a variety of haematological malignancies typically requires a period of cryopreservation before infusion of the cells into the patient. The cryoprotectant solution used for protection during the freezing process should preserve viability and functionality of the cells without causing harmto the recipient. There is therefore a need to develop a new method of cryopreservation to substitute for the currently used cryoprotectant dimethyl sulphoxide, which has a known cellular and systemic toxicity. The aim of this study is to use human hematopoietic cells to reconstitute the immune system of immunodeficient mice in order to test the immune response of human lymphocytes to different regenerative cellular therapies for human disease. This study also aims to investigate an effective and non-toxic method of cryopreservation of human hematopoietic cells. This study will only use hematopoietic cells derived from discarded samples from blood donation, obtained from accredited suppliers (eg. NHSBT). All samples will be anonymous and will have full consent for research applications.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/NW/0484
Date of REC Opinion
17 Jun 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion