Bone marrow transplants are currently the only approved stem cell-based therapy in the United States. They involve replacing the hematopoietic, or blood-forming stem cells, found in the bone marrow with healthy stem cells to treat patients with cancers, immune diseases and blood disorders.

For bone marrow transplants to succeed, patients must undergo radiation therapy to wipe out their diseased bone marrow, which creates space for the donor stem cells to repopulate the blood system. Radiation can lead to complications including hair loss, nausea, fatigue and infertility.

Scientists at UC San Diego have a potential solution that could make current bone marrow transplants safer for patients. Their research, which was funded in part by a CIRM grant, was published yesterday in the journal PNAS.

Engineered bone with functional bone marrow in the center. (Varghese Lab)

Led by bioengineering professor Dr. Shyni Varghese, the team engineered artificial bone tissue that contains healthy donor blood stem cells. They implanted the engineered bone under the skin of normal mice and watched as the “accessory bone marrow” functioned like the real thing by creating new blood cells.

The implant lasted more than six months. During that time, the scientists observed that the cells within the engineered bone structure matured into bone tissue that housed the donor bone marrow stem cells and resembled how bones are structured in the human body. The artificial bones also formed connections with the mouse circulatory system, which allowed the host blood cells to populate the implanted bone tissue and the donor blood cells to expand into the host’s bloodstream.

Normal bone structure (left) and engineered bone (middle) are very similar. Bone tissue shown on top right and bone marrow cells on bottom right. (Varghese lab)

The team also implanted these artificial bones into mice that received radiation to mimic the procedures that patients typically undergo before bone marrow transplants. The engineered bone successfully repopulated the blood systems of the irradiated mice, similar to how blood stem cell functions in normal bone.

In a UC San Diego news release, Dr. Varghese explained how their technology could be translated into the clinic,

“We’ve made an accessory bone that can separately accommodate donor cells. This way, we can keep the host cells and bypass irradiation. We’re working on making this a platform to generate more bone marrow stem cells. That would have useful applications for cell transplantations in the clinic.”

The authors concluded that engineered bone tissue would specifically benefit patients who needed bone marrow transplants for non-cancerous bone marrow-related diseases such as sickle cell anemia or thalassemia where there isn’t a need to destroy cancer-causing cells.