Could discarded neonatal stem cells treat Crohn’s disease?
Heart-derived neonatal mesenchymal stem cells have been shown to reduce inflammation and promote healing in an animal model of Crohn’s disease.
Crohn’s disease is a type of inflammatory bowel disease characterized by chronic inflammation and tissue damage of the gastrointestinal tract, resulting in symptoms such as abdominal pain, chronic diarrhea and fatigue. At present, there is no cure for the disease, and current interventions revolve around managing and alleviating symptoms of the disease. Examples include immunomodulators, anti-inflammatory drugs, antibody therapies and surgery, which have downsides including increased risk of gastrointestinal dysfunction and reduced efficacy over time.
In a bid to identify an alternative novel cell therapeutic approach, a team of researchers from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago (IL, US) turned to cardiac-derived neonatal mesenchymal stem cells. Utilizing neonatal mesenchymal stem cells (nMSC) that had been sourced from discarded cardiac tissue, the team injected the cells into lesions in the small intestine of a mouse model of Crohn’s disease-like ileitis. Prior to the study, cardiac-derived nMSCs had only been studied in myocardial infarction models and had not been explored in inflammatory intestinal disease models.
The team observed encouraging results with reduced lesion inflammation and promoted wound healing in the intestinal lining. The researchers hypothesized that the potential mechanism of action involved nMSC secretion of paracrine factors and exosomes that may be capable of transforming inflammatory immune cells into anti-inflammatory and pro-reparative immune cells.
Discussing the significance of the findings, senior author Arun Sharma stated: “Our results are encouraging and definitely provide a new platform to potentially treat aspects of chronic inflammatory bowel diseases. Ultimately our goal is to utilize this cell type as treatment, but also as a preventive measure, before signs and symptoms of Crohn’s disease develop.”
While the findings suggest that nMSCs could modulate aspects of Crohn’s disease, the therapeutic efficacy of the cells is yet to be established. Presently, the approach utilized by the team required open surgery to directly deliver the nMSCs to the lesions. Looking to overcome obstacles that may affect the clinical translation of the therapy, the team aims to develop a non-invasive approach to target the areas of inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract. In addition, the team is exploring whether the approach could be utilized for other inflammatory diseases.