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The Human Term Placenta as a Source of Transplantable Hematopoietic Stem Cells

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Perinatal Stem Cells

Abstract

In this chapter we summarize current knowledge on the hematopoietic potential of the human placenta throughout gestation and speculate about the possible use of this tissue at birth for the harvest of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and progenitors. Placental CD34+ cells could be used to augment those harvested from umbilical cord blood (UCB), which are routinely banked and used for stem cell transplantation. The placenta is an organ that develops from embryonic tissue, even before formation of the embryo, and it performs multiple critical transport functions throughout gestation. The discovery, a decade ago, that the placenta harbors HSCs and is an active and important hematopoietic organ in mice and humans dramatically changed our knowledge of the ontogeny of the hematopoietic system, adding a new extra-embryonic site to our models of hematopoietic development. We think that unveiling the hematopoietic potential of the placenta did more than shift our understanding of developmental hematopoiesis; the finding that the full-term placenta also contains sizable numbers of HSCs, which could readily be harvested at birth and combined with those present in the UCB, might also change the way we collect, bank, and transplant neonatal HSCs. Moreover, this finding might also further expand the use of UCB-HSCs for adult allogeneic transplantation by significantly increasing the harvested number of HSCs and thus avoiding the use of multiple units of UCB in single transplants, ex vivo expansion of UCB-HSCs or any other manipulation of this precious, but limited, source of HSCs prior transplantation.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to acknowledge the contributions of our colleagues with whom we have collaborated: Jason Farrell, for assistance to procure placental samples; Ashley Beyer and Marina Fomin for assistance with the murine transplant experiments and the staff and faculty at San Francisco General Hospital Women’s Options Center for assistance in the collection of human fetal tissues. We also wish to thank the staff and faculty at the Department of Obstetric, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences and at the Labor and Delivery Unit from Moffitt Hospital, University of California San Francisco, for their assistance in the collection of term placental samples and UCB.

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health: R21 HD055328 and P01 DK088760. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Ely and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, Center of Reproductive Sciences, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, 35 Medical Center Way, RMB #902E, San Francisco, CA, 94143-0665, USA

    Alicia Bárcena Ph.D.

  2. Blood System Research Institute and Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 270 Masonic Avenue, San Francisco, CA, 94118, USA

    Marcus O. Muench Ph.D.

  3. The Ely and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, Center of Reproductive Sciences, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, Institute for Regeneration Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 35 Medical Center Way, RMB #902E, 0665, San Francisco, CA, 94143-0665, USA

    Mirhan Kapidzic M.D., Matthew Gormley B.S. & Susan J. Fisher Ph.D.

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  1. Alicia Bárcena Ph.D.
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  2. Marcus O. Muench Ph.D.
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  3. Mirhan Kapidzic M.D.
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  4. Matthew Gormley B.S.
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  5. Susan J. Fisher Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Alicia Bárcena Ph.D. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA

    Anthony Atala

  2. Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA

    Sean V. Murphy

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Bárcena, A., Muench, M.O., Kapidzic, M., Gormley, M., Fisher, S.J. (2014). The Human Term Placenta as a Source of Transplantable Hematopoietic Stem Cells. In: Atala, A., Murphy, S. (eds) Perinatal Stem Cells. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1118-9_15

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