Enhancement of proliferation of human umbilical cord blood-derived CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells by a combination of hyper-interleukin-6 and small molecules

Yo Seph Park; Yukyeong Lee; Na Young Choi; Han Sung Hwang; Stefan Rose-John; Martin Zenke; Kinarm Ko

doi:10.1016/j.bbrep.2022.101214

Enhancement of proliferation of human umbilical cord blood-derived CD34⁺ hematopoietic stem cells by a combination of hyper-interleukin-6 and small molecules

Biochem Biophys Rep. 2022 Jan 27:29:101214. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrep.2022.101214. eCollection 2022 Mar.

Authors

Yo Seph Park^{1

2}, Yukyeong Lee¹, Na Young Choi^{1

2}, Han Sung Hwang³, Stefan Rose-John⁴, Martin Zenke⁵, Kinarm Ko^{1

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Stem Cell Biology, Konkuk University School of Medicine, Seoul, 05029, South Korea.
² Department of Stem Cell Research, TJC Life Research and Development Center, TJC Life, Seoul, 06698, South Korea.
³ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Research Institute of Medical Science, Konkuk University School of Medicine, Seoul, 05030, South Korea.
⁴ Institute of Biochemistry, Christian-Albrechts-University, Kiel, 24098, Germany.
⁵ Department of Cell Biology, Institute for Biomedical Engineering, RWTH Aachen University Medical School, Pauwelsstrasse 30, Aachen, 52074, Germany.
⁶ Research Institute of Medical Science, Konkuk University, Seoul, 05029, South Korea.

Abstract

Umbilical cord blood (UCB) is an alternative source of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) for transplantation to treat various hematological disorders. The major limitation to the use of UCB-derived HSCs (UCB-HSCs) in transplantation, however, is the low numbers of HSCs in a unit of cord blood. To overcome this limitation, various cytokines or small molecules have been used to expand UCB-HSCs ex vivo. In this study, we investigated a synergistic effect of the combination of HIL-6, SR1, and UM171 on UCB-HSC culture and found that this combination resulted in the highest number of CD34⁺ cells. These results suggest that the combination of SR1, UM171 and HIL-6 exerts a synergistic effect in the proliferation of HSCs from UCB and thus, SR1, UM171 and HIL-6 is the most suitable combination for obtaining HSCs from UCB for clinical transplantation.

Keywords: Hematopoietic stem cells; Hyper-interleukin-6; Proliferation; Small molecule; Umbilical cord blood.