Toward understanding and mitigating heterogeneity in bone marrow stromal cell cultures for improved therapeutic efficacy

Bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs), a subset of which are considered mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), have been used in over 600 clinical trials for indications ranging anywhere from autism to liver cirrhosis to diabetes. They have cited enthusiasm in the cell therapy community not only for their demonstrated differentiation potential toward several lineages, but also due to the anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects of their secretome. However, the necessary in vitro expansion of BMSCs renders cell populations functionally diverse, and understanding of what drives heterogeneity onset - as well as which distinct phenotypes elicit therapeutic responses of interest - remains an open challenge. This lack of characterization confounds studies focused on basic cell behavior as well as translational applications, and U.S. Food & Drug Administration approval for BMSC therapies has yet to be achieved for any of the several dozen indications explored to date.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Rennerfeldt, Deena Antoinette.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Krystyn J. Van Vliet.

• Biological Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121873

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/121873