Applying the regenerative medicine to cure the side-effects causing by the chemo/radiation therapy such as oral mucositis

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Oral mucositis is a serious and painful side effect for patients with head and neck cancer who received radiation- and/or chemo-therapy. It causes not only the limitation on the ability of patients to tolerate cancer therapies in some cases but also the harmful effects on the quality of life. However, current clinical strategies cannot efficiently prevent the occurrence of oral mucositis. Therefore, effectivetherapy should be developed urgently. BMDCs isolated from male C3H mice were transplanted to the female mice just after the irradiation through the tail vein. After 2, 5, 7 and 11 days of irradiation, the tongues were harvested, and the macroscopic, histological and immunological analyses were performed to clarify the effects of BMDC transplantation. After 2 days of irradiation, the tongues of non-treated mice (IR) showed significant apoptosis of the cells throughout the basal cell layer while few cells were observed in that of BMDCs-treated mice (BM). After 7 days of irradiation, while the ulcer area became maximum in the tongues of IR, the area of ulcers formed in BM specimens was approximately 60% of IR and preserved the epithelial thickness. Consistent with this appearance, histological analysis shows that tongues of BM demonstrated an increased level of tissue regenerative activity such as blood vessel formation and cell proliferation. Finally, after 11 days of irradiation, the area of ulcers in BM decreased remarkably compared with that in IR. Our data suggests that cell therapy with BMDCs can prevent the maximum ulceration caused by head and neck irradiation.