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Cord Blood Stem Cells Clonogenic Capacity Not Impaired by Cryopreservation

Stem Cell Week
March 20, 2006

2006 MAR 20 - (NewsRx.com) -- Cryopreservation does not impair the clonogenic capacity and in vitro expansion potential of umbilical cord blood stem cells. "Umbilical cord blood progenitor cells have been demonstrated to possess significant advantages over bone marrow in terms of proliferative capacity and immunologic reactivity.

"But the low number of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) is the most important limitation of its use," scientists writing in the journal Transplantation Proceedings report.

According to the authors, "The ex vivo expansion of cord blood progenitor cells is the current strategy to overcome this problem. Furthermore, among the factors that enable successful cord blood transplantation is the ability to store and subsequently recover a sufficient number of viable cells.

"Since it would be costly to expand umbilical cord blood (UCB) progenitor cells, it is important to determine the feasibility and reproducibility of progenitor cell expansion after cryopreservation."

"We evaluated whether cryopreservation procedures might impair the clonogenic capacity and in vitro expansion of UCB.

"We evaluated the cell viability, clonogenic capacity, CD34+38- content and in vitro expansion potential of progenitor cells from UCB (n=10) separated mononuclear cells (MNC), before and after 1 month of cryopreservation by programmed rate freezing," wrote L. Moezzi and colleagues at the University of Teheran.

"Although cell viability decreased after cryopreservation (p<0.05)," continued researchers, "there was no significant difference in CD34+ or CD34+38- absolute count, clonogenic capacity and in vitro expansion potential of cord blood progenitor cells (p>0.05).

"Since the survival of CD34+ cells was greater than other elements, CD34+ cells seem more tolerant to cryopreservation than the other nucleated populations. Moreover in vitro expansion of UCB progenitor cells may be obtained following cryopreservation."

Moezzi concluded, "Our results suggest that cryopreservation procedures do not impair the clonogenic capacity and in vitro expansion potential of cord blood stem/progenitor cells."

Moezzi and colleagues published their study in Transplantation Proceedings (The effect of cryopreservation on clonogenic capacity and in vitro expansion potential of umbilical cord blood progenitor cells. Transplant Proc, 2005;37(10):4500-4503).

Additional information can be obtained by contacting L. Moezzi, University of Teheran, Iranian Blood Transfusion Org, Hemat High Way, Tehran 4686, Iran.

The publisher of the journal Transplantation Proceedings can be contacted at: Elsevier Science Inc., 360 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010-1710, USA.

Keywords: Tehran, Iran, Cryopreservation, Umbilical Cord Blood Stem Cells, Clonogenic Capacity, In Vitro Expansion, Programmed Rate Freezing.

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