A study reported in Stem Cells Translational Medicine, shared results that show great strides of process in which stem cells could one day be used to prevent a type of osteoporosis caused by glucocorticoid therapy. Glucocorticoid therapy is used for management of inflammatory and auto-immune diseases.
Previous studies to explore using of gene-modified mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to relieve the diseased led researchers at the Fourth Military Medical University in Shaanxi, China, to wonder whether unmodified MSCs might be a therapy for glucocorticoid therapy-induced osteoporosis (GIOP).
“We hypothesized that it might prevent the reduction of bone mass and strength in GIOP through maintaining bone formation by inhabiting and functioning in recipient bone marrow,” said the study’s lead investigator, Yan Jin, M.D., Ph.D., of the university’s Center for Tissue Engineering.
Allogeneic – that is, the healthy donor’s – bone marrow-derived MSCs were isolated, identified and systemically infused into mice that had been given an excessive dose of a glucocorticoid (dexamethasone) to induce GIOP.
Dr. Jin said, “We found the MSC infusions prevented the reduction of both bone mass and bone strength in the glucocorticoid-treated mice by maintaining the bone formation. Our results also uncovered previously unrecognized MSC behaviors following a homing event (the phenomenon whereby stem cells migrate to the organ of their origin and engraft or establish residence there – thus providing greater regenerative effect). They indicated that minimizing the time of cell culture in the lab offers an advantage for increasing transplanted MSCs to the targeted organ to promote therapeutic effects.
“Although preliminary, this study provides some promising data for the therapeutic potential of allogeneic MSCs in glucocorticoid therapy-induced osteoporosis,” said Anthony Atala, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine and director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
