Biochemical and Parasitological Studies on the Effect of hUCB-Selected CD34(+) Progenitor/Stem Cells in Mice Infected with Schistosoma mansoni

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Placenta and blood that remained in the umbilical cord is routinely available as a discarded tissue after deliveries and it is free of any legal, moral, ethical or religious objections, providing a high number of multipotent CD34(+) progenitor and stem cells. Using ex vivo isolated CD34(+) cells from human umbilical cord blood (hUCB) have emerged as promising candidates to treat various diseases, including exogenous pathogenic infections. We have expanded to build a rational approach to study the effect of CD34(+) cells after damaged liver tissues by the devastating human parasitic flatworm Schistosoma mansoni. METHODS AND RESULTS: Experimental studies were conducted in the Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science and Departments of Parasitology and Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, SCU, Egypt. We have studied the impact of ex vivo preparation of CD34(+) cells from hUCB on S. mansoni-induced liver fibrosis de novo, and treated for shorter and longer periods in vivo. Ova count, ALT and albumin were measured at specific time interval and histopathological examination of liver was conducted to confirm the biochemical results. The data obtained were statistically analyzed by ANOVA between groups. It was found that the administration of CD34(+) cells have modestly reduced liver damage; reduced the S. mansoni infection associated elevation in serum levels of ALT; significantly improved serum levels of albumin and reduced egg granuloma diameter in the livers. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated that CD34(+) cells can markedly ameliorated liver fibrosis in vivo and may be beneficial for therapy to recover organ structure and/or function of S. mansoni-infected mice.