Products

Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation

Hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation is performed to restore hematopoiesis in patients that have been treated with high dose chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy. The stem cells can be derived from bone marrow, peripheral blood or umbilical cord blood. Within the Laboratory for Stem Cell Transplantation, blood and bone marrow is processed for patients who are in need of an autologous or allogeneic stem cell transplantation. The SCL has ample experience with the processing, cryopreservation, storage and bed-side thawing of HSC transplants. Yearly the  SCL processes approximately 150 transplants for the (academic) hospitals in the Amsterdam area.

In the past years many novel cellular products for individual therapy have been developed which are now translated into the clinic. These new cellular therapies can be subdivided into regenerative therapy or immunotherapy. Here we describe which cell types can be used and how we apply them for therapy.

Immunotherapy

Dendritic cells

Mature dendritic cells (DCs) have the ability to activate the immune system which is beneficial for anti-tumour immunity. The Laboratory for Stem Cell Transplantation (SCL) and the Department of Immunopathology have developed a protocol to generate clinical applicable DCs. In collaboration with the group of dr. Sheila Krisnadath from the Academic Medical Center, this protocol will be applied in a phase I clinical trial for patients suffering from oesophageal adenocarcinoma. The method is based on the aphaeresis of a patient and subsequent isolation of monocytes using the Elutra. DCs are then produced in vitro using a cocktail of compounds containing MPLA/IFNg. Mature DCs are loaded with tumour RNA from autologous patient biopsies via electroporation. Each Patient will receive at least 4 vaccinations of DCs.

Mesenchymal stromal cells

Bone-marrow derived mesenchymal stromal cells (BM-MSC) are multi-potent cells which provide support for haematopoietic progenitor cells. They have the ability to migrate to sites of inflammation and injury and have immunomodulatory properties. Clinical applications of MSC include treatment of therapy-resistant acute graft versus host disease (GvHD) and treatment of rejection after haematopoietic stem cell or solid organ transplantation. We will develop a clinical-grade MSC expansion protocol to generate a standardized MSC product. These MSCs will be used to treat patients with therapy-resistant GvHD in a phase II/III trial.

T-cells

Recently two clinical trial have started to treat melanoma patients with adoptive therapy using tumour specific T-cells or with cytotoxic T-cells that are redirected.by T-cell receptor gene transfer. For this trial the SCL will process and subsequently cryopreserve the initial leukapheresis products based on T-cell content.