Protocols for Hematopoietic Stem Cell Expansion from Umbilical Cord Blood

The reconstitution of adult stem cells may be a promising source for the regeneration of damaged tissues and for the reconstitution of organ dysfunction. However, there are two major limitations to the use of such cells: they are rare, and only a few types exist that can easily be isolated without harming the patient. The best studied and most widely used stem cells are of the hematopoietic lineage. Pioneering work on hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation was done in the early 1970s by ED. Thomas and colleagues. Since then HSCs have been used in allogenic and autologous transplantation settings to reconstitute blood formation after high-dose chemotherapy for various blood disorders. The cells can be easily harvested from donors, but the cell number is limited, especially when the HSCs originate from umbilical cord blood (UCB). It would be desirable to set up an ex vivo strategy to expand HSCs in order to overcome the cell dose limit, whereby the expansion would favor cell proliferation over cell differentiation. This review provides an overview of the various existing HSC expansion strategies—focusing particularly on stem cells derived from UCB—of the parameters that might affect the outcome, and of the difficulties that may occur when trying to expand such cells.