Patent Application
20140031772
Stem cells are capable of being used for treatment of various medical conditions through regenerative medicine and cell therapy. Therapeutic uses of stem cells include, for example, treatment of neurological defects, such as neurological trauma (e.g. spinal cord and brain injuries) as a result of accidents or stroke, or neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, and Huntington's disease. Stem cells, such as pluripotent stem cells and multipotent stromal cells, are capable of differentiating into specialized cells depending on their environment, and therefore have the capability of being used to replace and repair damaged tissues. Stem cells obtained from bone marrow (i.e. marrow stromal cells or mesenchymal stem cells) can be particularly useful in repairing damage to bones and cartilage caused by conditions such as, for example, osteoarthritis. Due to their heterogeneity and plasticity, stem cells obtained from bone marrow are also useful for treating other conditions and tissues, such as pancreatic tissue in treatment of diabetes, skin in treatment of wounds, burns, and other skin related disorders, cardiac muscle in treatment of heart disease or disorders, and other muscle tissues.
New cell therapies are rapidly being developed, and improved sources for stem cells are needed. Currently, stem cells can be obtained from umbilical cord tissue, extraction of adipose tissue, pulp from teeth, peripheral blood, and bone marrow. However, obtaining stem cells from these tissues or peripheral blood is time consuming and can require a surgical procedure and/or multiple treatments to obtain the stem cells. For example, obtaining stem cells from peripheral blood requires multiple apheresis treatments and obtaining the stem cells from bone marrow involves a painful procedure in which a large needle is inserted into the pelvis to aspirate bone marrow cells from the iliac crest.
Another drawback to these conventional stem cell collection procedures is that therapeutically useful amounts of stem cells are not generally obtained and expansion of the stem cells is required to obtain a therapeutically useful amount of stem cells. While significant advancements have been made in the field of controlled expansion of stem cells, expanding a seed sample of stem cells into a therapeutic dosage of pluripotent or multipotent stem cells with the degree of reliability and precision necessary for therapeutic treatment has not yet been obtained. Therefore, there is a need for a method for providing therapeutically useful amounts of stem cells without expansion that is less invasive and painful to the donor, and is less costly and time consuming than currently available methods.
A system and method for collecting bone marrow comprising stem cells from bone marrow exposed during a surgical procedure is disclosed. The system comprises a cannula; a collection element, such as a syringe; a storage element, such as a blood bag or blood tube; a valve assembly; and connecting tubing. The system is a closed system which significantly reduces the risk of microbial contamination during the collection and/or processing of the bone marrow. The method includes collecting bone marrow using the system during a surgical procedure, such as a hip or knee replacement surgery, and processing the collected bone marrow to obtain stem cells. Once obtained, the stem cells can be cryopreserved in a cell bank for later use.
For the purpose of this application, the term “stem cells” is intended to encompass cells capable of regenerating tissue by differentiation or by activating or promoting the division and regeneration of other cells and includes pluripotent stem cells and multipotent stem cells and mesenchymal stem cells in bone marrow.
Stem cells have been found within many different types of tissues in the human body and are most commonly associated with blood, bone marrow, adipose tissue and dental pulp. Extraction of stem cells from each of these sources presents its own challenges. For example, peripheral blood is easy to collect, but are large volume of blood must be collected/treated over multiple treatments to obtain a quantity of stem cells sufficient for a seed sample. Bone marrow aspiration is a painful procedure generally performed under general anesthesia and has some possible side effects related to the invasive nature of the procedure. The procedures related to bone marrow aspiration also usually include the transfer of the specimen from a sterile surgical environment to a non-sterile environment in a system open to ambient air, risking exposure and contamination of the collected cells. Methods to extract stem cells from adipose tissue can be very complex and are still under development. Extraction from dental pulp faces similar challenges as extraction from adipose tissue, in addition to the fact that there is very little dental pulp available per tooth so the number of stem cells obtained from dental pulp is very low compared to other tissues.
Embryonic tissues yield high quantities of stem cells because stem cells are very concentrated in such tissues. However, using embryos to produce stem cells for research and therapeutic purposes is highly controversial. Stem cells from other tissues are not as concentrated due to dilution by other types of cells and are therefore available in much lower concentrations and quantities, typically only producing enough cells to be used as seed cells.
To arrive at therapeutically useful quantities, stem cells obtained by conventional procedures must first be isolated or enriched and then propagated and expanded. Isolation or enrichment of stem cells typically involves the elimination of unwanted differentiated cells, particularly for cells obtained from non-marrow tissues or fluid. This isolation or enrichment can be performed, for example, by targeting markers on the unwanted cells with antibodies, by destroying the cells using complement proteins, or by removing factors that support the survival of the unwanted differentiated cells to reduce the number of those cells. Hematopoietic stem cells, such as stem cells obtained from blood or bone marrow, can also be coarsely separated by gradient centrifugation and further enriched by cell sorting using antibodies that bind to particular identifying surface proteins of the cells.
As conventional collection procures do not generally provide a therapeutically useful amount of stem cells, the isolated or enriched cells must also be expanded to obtain a therapeutically useful amount. While significant advancements have been made in the area of controlled expansion of stem cells, expanding a seed sample of stem cells into a therapeutic dosage of pluripotent or multipotent stem cells with the degree of reliability necessary for therapeutic treatment has not yet been obtained.
The present application provides for a convenient and low cost system and method that allow for the collection of a therapeutically useful amount of stem cells from a patient who is already undergoing another surgical procedure, thus sparing the patient from further pain or discomfort and the risks associated with another procedure, saving time and money by combining two or more procedures into a single procedure, and eliminating the need to expand the harvest cells to obtain a therapeutically useful amount. The system is a closed system in which, once the bone marrow has been collected from the patient, its exposure to the environment and possible microbial contaminants are substantially eliminated.
The marrow of a bone is exposed during certain surgical procedures, such as joint replacement procedures. For example, in hip or knee replacement surgery, osteotomy may be performed on the proximal end of the femur (hip replacement) or the distal end of the femur and proximal end of the tibia (knee replacement), exposing the bone marrow of these bones. In some hip replacement procedures the acetabulum (hip socket) may be prepared in a way that allows for convenient collection of bone marrow from the site. Bone marrow may also be exposed due to trauma to a bone and may be collected during subsequent treatment, providing the patient with stem cells to be used in a cell therapy related to the trauma. According to an embodiment, bone marrow or marrow stromal cells comprising stem cells can be collected either during or after the surgery (or in cases where a section of the bone is removed, collection can be done after the surgery), thus avoiding a separate procedure to collect stem cells from the patient. This provides for a fast and convenient method to extract a therapeutically useful amount of stem cells highly capable of differentiation and proliferation.
Bone marrow or marrow stromal cells collected from the femur or pelvis during hip replacement surgery or the femur and tibia during knee replacement surgery is estimated to contain approximately 0.1-1 million stem cells per milliliter, but the number may vary among patients depending on sex, age, health, and nutrition. The differentiation and proliferation capabilities of stem cells have been found to be largely independent of the age, gender and condition of the donor, suggesting that even elderly patients with arthritic conditions would be viable candidates for harvesting marrow stromal cells from bone marrow during surgery.
Generally between about 20 ml to about 100 ml of bone marrow is collected from the patient during the surgical procedure, which typically provides from about 4,000,000 to about 20,000,000 stem cells. A therapeutic dosage suitable for a microtransplant of cells generally includes at least 4,000,000 stem cells, preferably at least 10,000,000 cells, which can be obtained by the system and method of the disclosure without requiring further expansion of the cells. Specimens collected using the system and method of the disclosure may be processed using conventional bone marrow/stem cell processing methods and used immediately in cell therapy or cryopreserved for later us. For example, the specimen may be filtered, centrifuged and washed to separate the cells from any other material contained in the specimen and resuspended in a medium suitable for cell therapy. Alternatively, the cells are resuspended in a cryopreservation medium, such as CryoStor® (available from BioLife Solutions, Inc. in Bothell, Wash.), and cryogenically preserved in a cell bank for later use using conventional cryogenic freezing mediums and methods.
As the disclosed system and method utilizes a closed system, a safe and hygienic means for collecting and transferring bone marrow from a patient into a storage system is provided that reduces exposure of the collected stem cells to microbial contamination. Cells collected using the system and method of the disclosure can either be collected for donating to another patient, or for the donor's own use, and can be cryogenically stored in a cell bank for later use.
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As the system is a closed system, exposure to ambient air is limited during the collection procedure with significantly reduces and/or eliminates the risk of microbial contamination from bacteria, fungi, viruses and the like during collection and processing of the cells. If collection of the specimen from the patient is done in a sterile, surgical environment, the use of the system and method enables the maintaining of the sterile environment, further protecting the specimen from microbial contamination. The transfer of the specimen (e.g. bone marrow) from the collection element to the storage element according to the system and method is also done completely within the closed system thereby eliminating exposure of the cells to ambient air during the transfer process.
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A method of collecting bone marrow from a patient during a surgical procedure with the system of the disclosure is another aspect of the invention. The method generally includes actuating the valve assembly to provide a flow path between the cannula and the collection element; suctioning the bone marrow into the collection element; actuating the valve assembly to provide a flow path between the collection element and the storage element; and transferring the collected marrow from the collection element to the storage element. The valve assembly can be actuated before or after insertion of the cannula into the bone marrow to provide the flow path between the cannula and the collection element.
According to an exemplary embodiment, steps performed to collect bone marrow using the system and method are shown in
After a desired amount of bone marrow is collected in the collection element, such as a syringe, the syringe can be inverted to mix the collected marrow with the anticoagulant. The valve position is then actuated (either manually or in the case of an automatic valve assembly, by applying a positive or negative pressure) to provide a flow path between collection element and the storage element allowing the collected marrow to be transferred from the collection element into the storage element, such as a tube or a bag for storage and/or processing of the cells.
Depending on the size of the collection element relative to the size of the storage element (e.g. a bag), the syringe may be filled several times and the contents transferred into the storage element. Once the collected marrow has been transferred into the storage element, the storage element can be sealed to prevent leakage and contamination, and may thereafter be disconnected from the rest of the system. The collected specimen contained in the storage element can then be centrifuged as required prior to cooling and/or further processing.
According to an exemplary procedure, a bone marrow or marrow stromal cells is collected in a collection tube, such as a Vacutainer® CPT™ tube (part no. 362761, available from Becton, Dickinson and Company in Franklin Lakes, N.J.) or blood collection bag that contains an anticoagulant (e.g. sodium citrate or EDTA). The tube or bag can be inverted several times to mix the collected cells with the anticoagulant and centrifuged to separate the cells into component cell layers from which the stem cells can be recovered from the buffy coat layer. For example, the specimen may be centrifuged for 10-20 minutes at about 1,000-1,500 rpm and at 18-20° C. The stem cells remain in the buffy coat layer, the middle layer between the top layer comprising mostly plasma and the bottom layer comprising mostly red blood cells, which can be separated, for example, by pipetting. The buffy coat can be concentrated by centrifuging the collected layer for about 10-12 minutes at about 2,000-2,100 rpm and discarding the supernatant. The cells can then be suspended in Dulbecco's Phosphate Buffered Saline (DPBS) and centrifuged for about 10-12 minutes at about 1,000-1,200 rpm. The cells can be resuspended in another volume of DPBS and counted using, for example, a Countess® Automated Cell Counter (part no. C10227, available from Life Technologies Corp. in Grand Island, N.Y.).
Once isolated from the collected bone marrow, the stem cells can be sorted, if desired, using conventional cell sorting techniques, such as flow cytometry, and fluorescently labeled antibodies that bind a particular marker on the surface to identify particle subsets of stem cells from the pool of collected cells. CD31, CD34, CD44, CD45, CD90, CD 105, CD117, and CD166 are several examples of cell surface markers, the presence or absence of which can be used to identify stem cells from other blood cells and the differentiation potential of the stem cells such that the stem cells can be sorted into groups, if desired, of cells based on differentiation potential (e.g., totipotent, pluripotent, multipotent, oligopotent, and unipotent). A listing of useful CD markers for identifying and characterizing stem cells can be found, for example, at www<.>abcam<.>com/CDmarkers.
If the stem cells are to be frozen and banked for later use, the cells are resuspended in a cryogenic storage medium, such as for example, CryoStor™ (part no. CS10, available from StemCell Technologies, Inc. in Vancouver, BC, Canada), to a final concentration of about 4.0×106-10.0×106 cells per milliliter of medium. The suspended cells can be stored in cryogenic storage vials (e.g. CryoELITE™ part no. W985861, available from Wheaton in Millville, N.J.) and gradually cooled to a cryogenic storage temperature, e.g. below −180° C., using conventional methods.
The system of the disclosure can be configured as a kit for cell banking. Such a kit generally includes a cannula, a collection element such as a syringe, a storage element such as a blood collection bag or blood collection tubes, a valve assembly, connecting tubing, and instructions for assembling the kit and using the kit to collect bone marrow during a surgical procedure and process the collected bone marrow for cell banking. The kit may also comprise filters, a transport element, and/or labels and packing material for shipping the collected bone marrow to a processing/cell banking site. The transport element typically includes a cooler type package for shipping the collected cells and can optionally include an evaporative-type cooling element. In an embodiment, the evaporative cooling element continuously evaporates small quantities of water at low pressure while the cells are in transit from the point of collection to the cell bank or other processing facility, such as a laboratory. One example of a cooler package comprising an evaporative cooling element is a NANOCOOL™ specimen shipping package (NanoPore Inc., Albuquerque, N. Mex.).
Stem cells isolated from bone marrow according the system and method of the disclosure can be used in stem cell therapies as described herein and known in the art. The stem cells are typically suspended in physiological saline solution, serum, or autologous serum for administration to a patient. The stem cells may be administered locally as an injection of a concentrated cell suspension at the site of an injury or a lesion. Alternatively, the stem cells may be administered intravenously, particularly if for some reason local administration is not practical. The number of stem cells administered to a patient for a particular treatment can vary and is dependent upon the disorder being treated, route of administration of the stem cells, and the sex, age, and health of the patient. A therapeutic dosage suitable for a microtransplant of stem cells generally includes at least 4,000,000 stem cells, preferably at least 10,000,000 cells, which can be obtained by the system and method of the disclosure without requiring, unlike conventional stem cell collection procedures, expansion of the cells to obtain a suitable number of cells.
The following examples are illustrative and other embodiments exist and are within the scope of the invention.
Bone marrow was collected from three patients during hip replacement surgery. Three separate surgical approaches (anterior, posterior and lateral) were used. In each approach, bone marrow was collected from the prepared acetabulum.
In each surgery, the patient was prepared for surgery using conventional surgical methods. After dislocation of the hip and femoral neck osteotomy, the acetabulum was prepared by reaming to allow for socket ingrowth post-surgery. The reaming provided a bed of bleeding bone, from which 20 mL bone marrow (from each patient) was extracted using a syringe. The collected bone marrow was processed as described in Example 3 and the stem cells isolated from the collected bone marrow were cryogenically preserved in a cell bank as described in Example 3 for future use by the patients.
Bone marrow was collected from two patients during knee replacement surgery. In each surgery, bone marrow was collected from the femoral and tibial medullary canals.
In each surgery, the patient was prepared for surgery using conventional surgical methods. After osteotomy of the proximal end of the tibia and the distal end of the femur, 20 mL of bone marrow was extracted from the femoral and tibial medullary canals using a syringe. The collected bone marrow was processed as described in Example 3 and the stem cells isolated from the collected bone marrow were cryogenically preserved in a cell bank as described in Example 3 for future use by the patients.
Stem cells were separated and isolated from the bone marrow collected in Examples 1 and 2 and processed for cryogenic preservation and storage in a cell bank for later use by the patients. During the surgical procedures, the bone marrow was collected from each patient in Vacutainer® CPT™ tubes (available from Becton, Dickinson and Company in Franklin Lakes, N.J.) and the tubes were inverted several times to mix the collected marrow with anticoagulant contained in the tubes. The tubes were centrifuged for a minimum of 15 minutes at 1500-1800 RCF to separate the collected marrow into component layers. The stem cells are generally contained in the buffy coat layer. Therefore, the buffy layer was collected from each of the patient's collection tubes and concentrated by centrifuging the combined layers for 10 minutes at about 2,070 rpm. The supernatant was discarded and the stem cells were resuspended in 10 mL of DPBS and centrifuged again for 10 minutes at about 1,130 rpm. The supernatant was again discarded and the stem cells were resuspended in 10 mL of DPBS. An aliquot of the suspension was transferred to a Countess® Automated Cell Counter and the total number of viable cells was calculated. The suspension was centrifuged for 10 minutes at about 1,130 rpm, the supernatant discarded, and the cells were resuspended in an appropriate volume of CryoStor™ cryogenic storage medium to yield 2×106-10×106 cells/mL. The suspension of stem cells was transferred into cryogenic storage vials (approximately 1.0 mL per vial) and the vials were cooled at a controlled rate at approximately 1° C./min until −80° C. was obtained, before being transferred to a cryogenic freezer in cryogenic storage boxes to be stored at <−135° C. for later use by the patient.
It is important to note that the construction and arrangement of the elements of the inventions as described in this application and as shown in the figures above is illustrative only. Although some embodiments of the present inventions have been described in detail in this disclosure, those skilled in the art who review this disclosure will readily appreciate that many modifications are possible without materially departing from the novel teachings and advantages of the subject matter recited. Accordingly, all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the present inventions. Other substitutions, modifications, changes and omissions may be made in the design, operating conditions and arrangement of the preferred and other exemplary embodiments without departing from the spirit of the present inventions.
The system and method of the present invention can comprise conventional technology (e.g. commercially available syringes, collection bags, collection tubes, cannulas, tubing, valves, etc.) or any other applicable technology (present or future) that has the capability to perform the functions and processes/operations indicated in the FIGURES. All such technology is considered to be within the scope of the present inventions.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/677,370, filed on Jul. 30, 2012, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COLLECTING STEM CELLS, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61677370 | Jul 2012 | US |
