June 4, 2007

New Citations

1. Supportive Care Manual for Blood and Marrow Transplantation.
A new manual concisely addresses both the indications and complications of the supportive pharmaceutical and care regimens involved in the supportive care of hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) patients. See XXII. Books, Citation 1

2. A meta-analysis of unrelated donor umbilical cord blood transplantation versus unrelated donor bone marrow transplantation in adult and pediatric patients.
This article presents the results of a systematic review and meta-analysis of pooled data on comparative studies of UCBT and UBMT in patients requiring hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and demonstrates that UCBT in children and adults had consistently equivalent survival outcomes compared with UBMT despite greater donor-recipient HLA disparity with UCBT. See I. Recent Reviews, Citation 7

3. Clinical trials with adult stem/progenitor cells for tissue repair: let's not overlook some essential precautions.
This is a thoughtful “Perspective” discussing the current wave of enthusiasm for clinical trials in which adult stem/progenitor cells are used to repair tissues. See XVI. Stem Cell Plasticity and Regenerative Medicine, Citation 10

4. Human amniotic fluid-derived stem cells have characteristics of multipotent stem cells.
The authors report that cells obtained from human amniotic fluid possess immunophenotypes and gene expression profiles that are largely characteristic of undifferentiated cells, and therefore may have therapeutic potential that is even greater than bone marrow derive MSCs. See XIX. Miscellaneous Topics, Vii. Other items, Citation B

5. Therapeutic options for patients with severe beta-thalassemia: the need for globin gene therapy.
The authors comment that the severe β-thalassemias are still debilitating, often lethal disorders, for which a curative therapy is warranted. They discuss the unfulfilled promise of gene therapy and mention that the results of cord blood transplants are encouraging but it is too early and the data are too scarce to draw definitive conclusions. See XII. Section ii. Thalassemia, subsection A. Clinical Aspects, Citation 5

6. Enhanced in vivo homing of uncultured and selectively amplified cord blood CD34+ cells by cotransplantation with cord blood-derived unrestricted somatic stem cells
The investigators evaluated the capacity of ex vivo expanded USSCs to influence the homing of UCB-derived CD34(+) cells into the marrow and spleen of nonobese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficient (NOD/SCID) mice.
USSCs induced a significant enhancement of CD34(+) cell homing to both bone marrow and spleen, and concluded that their findings suggest a clinical potential for using USSCs in facilitating homing and engraftment for cord blood transplant recipients. See XV. New Concepts in CBT, section ii. Co-transplantation of CBU and mobilized stem cells from a third party donor, Citation C