Cell therapy of sepsis
Sepsis is a life–threatening generalized inflammation caused by bacterial or viral infections that triggers an immune response leading to organ failure and death.
Daniel Morales-Mantilla and his colleagues from Baylor College of Medicine, USA, studied the effects of sepsis in mice after infection with Streptococcus pyogenes. They found that this condition leads to a sharp decrease in the number of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPC) in the bone marrow of animals. These cells are responsible for the production of all blood cells and immune cells. The team hypothesized that the amount of HSPC is falling because the cells are working excessively to produce the cells needed to fight both infection and severe inflammation caused by sepsis.
After that, the researchers tested whether infusion of new healthy HSPCs could improve sepsis outcomes. To do this, they injected mice with sepsis with approximately 10,000 healthy HSPCs 24 hours after infection. The treatment increased the survival rate of the animals by 50-60% compared to the mice of the control group. It also reduced the amount of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Surprisingly, the infusion of HSPC did not reduce the number of bacteria in mice.
Currently, in clinical practice, granulocytes (a type of leukocytes) are sometimes infused into patients with sepsis, but this procedure is ineffective and requires a large number of donor cells that must be injected repeatedly.
A new study demonstrates a potential alternative to granulocyte transfusion. If the results are confirmed in further studies, stem cell infusion may become the method of choice for the treatment of patients with sepsis.
Article by D.E.Morales-Mantilla et al. Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells improve survival from sepsis by boosting immunomodulatory cells is published in the journal Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine.
Aminat Adzhieva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of eLife Sciences: Stem cell infusion boosts sepsis survival in mice.