R01HD32170       BRANCH, DAVID W           FETAL STEM CELLS FOR TRANSPLANTATION
-PROJECT NUMBER......1 R01 HD32170-01
                                     FY  94    BRANCH, DAVID W
IRG/INTRAMURAL UNIT..SRC                       UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
AWARD AMOUNT.........   $239,166               50 NORTH MEDICAL DR, RM 2B200
                                               SALT LAKE CITY, UT  84132
PERFORMING ORGANIZATION: UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
TITLE   FETAL STEM CELLS FOR TRANSPLANTATION

ABSTRACT:

Transplantation of fetal tissues has been advocated as a means of treating
various life-threatening conditions. Fetal cells may be uniquely suited
for transplantation because of: (1) their ability to grow and proliferate,
(2) their ability to undergo cell and tissue differentiation (intrinsic
plasticity), (3) their ability to produce growth factors, and (4) their
reduced antigenicity compared to adult cells. If properly and ethically
obtained, induced abortions would seem a voluminous source of
transplantable cells and tissues this country. However, induced abortion
tissues, and the women who would donate the tissues, have not been
exhaustively characterized to determine if they are suitable for
transplantation purposes. In addition, the optimal methods for collecting,
processing, evaluating, maintaining, and banking fetal tissues and cell
lines has not been determined. Our group is primarily interested in the
use of fetal hematopoietic stem cells for in utero transplantation to
treat inborn errors of metabolism, immune deficiencies, and hematologic
disorders. We propose to characterize induced abortion tissues and the
women donating the tissues with regard to suitability for fetal tissue
transplantation. We plan to use protocols previously developed for the
study of spontaneous abortions and currently in use to characterize
induced abortion specimens with respect to bacterial and viral
contamination, morphological abnormalities, and cytogenetic abnormalities.
We will test whether our use of DNA technology to search for infectious
and genetic etiologies may be more efficient and perhaps more sensitive
than traditional microbiologic and cytogenetic techniques. We also will
determine the yield, growth potential, cell types, and immunologic
characteristics of cultured hematopoietic stem cells. Finally we will also
determine whether the cultured cells can be cryopreserved, transported,
and transplanted in a well-established in utero transplantation model.

CRISP INDEXING TERMS FROM CRISP THESAURUS:
04323309P   hematopoietic tissue transplantation
04353857P   hematopoietic stem cell
14654300P   human embryo /fetus tissue
03682318S   bacterial disease
06038552S   cell type
06380313S   Chlamydia
12594334S   chromosome aberration
15536564S   cytokine
15807555S   information system
24044640S   induced abortion
30998150S   virus disease
30999294S   Herpesviridae disease
06307520T   polymerase chain reaction
14652636T   human tissue
15805050T   questionnaire
21017950T   in situ hybridization
23230949T   high performance liquid chromatography
28713303T   cryopreservation