NIH Clinical Center transfuses bone marrow stromal cells to first study participant

Episode # 94
Uploaded: April 10, 2012
Running Time: 03:07

CROWN: From America's Research Hospital, this is Clinical Center Radio.

The NIH Clinical Center treated its first study participant with bone marrow stromal cells, which researchers believe may help to regulate the patient's immune system. Dr. David Stroncek, chief of the Department of Transfusion Medicine's Cell Processing Section:

STRONCEK: We've been working on this project with my lab, and with clinical investigators at the NIH and with laboratory researchers at the NIH for over three years, both to develop the laboratory procedures, the good manufacturing procedures to grow these cells, and the clinical protocols to treat the patients.

CROWN: The study volunteer who received the bone marrow stromal cells is currently enrolled in a protocol conducted by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The study volunteer has graft-versus-host disease, a complication that can occur after a stem cell or bone marrow transplant in which the donor immune system attacks the transplant recipient's body. Researchers hope the bone marrow stromal cells will suppress the patient's immune system.

Healthy volunteers provided the cells for this study. The cell processing team starts with a small amount of cells retrieved from a small bone marrow donation. The rest are grown over a one-month period.

STRONCEK: We start with a small bone marrow aspirate that really has very few of these stromal cells and we culture them in small flasks. They gradually grow, and as they grow we have to transfer the culture into bigger and bigger flasks. Finally, we start out with maybe a few flasks with maybe 100 milliliters of media that the cells are growing in. By the time the 28 days are over, we have eight very large flasks, which are called cell factories, with about 10 liters of media. So the cells have expanded thousands- fold.

CROWN: The study will include giving patients a series of three transfusions throughout a three-week period. While research investigators hope to learn more about bone marrow stromal cells, the transfusion medicine experts will learn more about the characteristics of the cells and the best processing methods.

STRONCEK: Should we give them more often than three times? Should we give them a higher cell dose? We also think there is going to be some variability in the cells with a lot of the cells we use. So we want to try to figure out what the characteristics of the cells that we give are the most important. Then what we would like to do then is to modify the way we give cells down the line, so we can make the best possible cell that is the most effective in treating patients.

CROWN: From America's Clinical Research Hospital, this has been CLINICAL CENTER RADIO. In Bethesda, Maryland, I'm Ellen Crown, at the National Institutes of Health, an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

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