Beike Biological Empowerment Stem Cell Technology Platform
The latest research results in 2024
Published in the international authoritative academic journal “Cell & Bioscience”!
Recently, the team of Professor Cai Cheguo and Dr. Liao Yan from the R&D Center of Shenzhen Beike Biotechnology Co., Ltd. published the latest basic research paper online in the internationally authoritative academic journal “Cell & Bioscience” (impact factor 7.5). The title of the paper is: “Unveiling the functional heterogeneity of cytokine-primed human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells through single-cell RNA sequencing”.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) therapy has achieved remarkable results in a variety of diseases, especially in the treatment of immune inflammation-mediated and tissue damage-related diseases, mainly because of the immunomodulatory ability and tissue repair effect of MSCs. Clinical data show that there are clinical differences in the therapeutic effects of MSCs, and the reasons may be related to factors such as differences in disease microenvironments, individual patient differences, and MSCs heterogeneity [1]. Based on reports on MSCs plasticity and disease microenvironment, various methods can enhance the biological functions of MSCs, such as inflammatory factor induction, hypoxia induction, and three-dimensional culture [2]. Energizing MSCs with inflammatory factors is considered one of the most commonly used methods to simulate the inflammatory microenvironment in the body, and can effectively improve the immunosuppressive function of MSCs (shown in Figure 1). Therefore, it is of great significance to optimize the biological functions of MSCs by studying different technical means to enhance their targeted effects, thereby improving the therapeutic effect. In particular, it is of great significance to develop empowered MSCs customized for patients.
In this study, the team members used 6 kinds of inflammatory factors to “empower” umbilical cord MSCs in vitro and then performed single-cell transcriptome sequencing. Through bioinformatics analysis, they found that IFN-γ-empowered MSCs effectively enhanced their immune regulatory capabilities and could inhibit the proliferation of immune cells and the expression of pro-inflammatory factors by secreting more immune regulatory molecules (IDO1, PD-L1, etc.); TN MSCs empowered by F-α can effectively enhance their chemotactic potential and can release a variety of chemokines (CCL2, CXCL1, etc.) to attract immune cells to the MSCs; MSCs empowered by IL-4 can effectively enhance their ability to secrete collagen and can produce more types of collagen (COL1A1, COL5A1, etc.), which play a role in the repair of damaged tissue (shown in Figure 2). At the same time, we also found that IFN-γ and TNF-α can reduce the cell heterogeneity of umbilical cord MSCs and provide more uniform and better stem cell products for clinical use.
Figure 2 Inflammatory factors empower MSCs to enhance a variety of specific biological functions
This study drew a cell map for MSCs empowered by inflammatory factors. MSCs empowered by different inflammatory factors exhibit specific biological functions, indicating that they have different clinical application values. These findings provide new ideas for analyzing the in vivo biological functions and precise therapeutic applications of MSCs, provide a theoretical basis for promoting treatment strategies and quality control of umbilical cord MSCs, and have far-reaching significance for the basic research and clinical application of umbilical cord MSCs.
The publication of this paper fully demonstrates the strength of Beike Biotech in scientific research and technological innovation, and provides an important theoretical basis for the clinical transformation of mesenchymal stem cells. At the same time, the first author of the paper, Hu Zhiwei (Master of Biomedical Engineering from Hunan University, R&D engineer of Beike Biotech), is good at using bioinformatics methods to analyze and predict the biological functions of stem cells, which provides important support for the research and development of new stem cell technologies. It also fully reflects the diversified technical talent reserve strategy implemented by Beike Biotech in R&D.
Paper link:
https://cellandbioscience.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13578-024-01219-3
References:
[1] Mehdi, Najar, Rahma, Melki, Ferial, Khalife, et al. Therapeutic Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cells: Value, Challenges and Optimization. Front Cell Dev Biol. 2022:9:716853.
[2] Vitale, Miceli, Giovanni, Zito, Matteo, Bulati, et al. Different priming strategies improve distinct therapeutic capabilities of mesenchymal stromal/stem cells: Potential implications for their clinical use. World J Stem Cells. 2023;15(5):400-420.