Development of stem cell therapy for the oral tissues damaged by chemo-radiation therapy

唾液腺萎缩或骨坏死是接受放疗和/或化疗的头颈癌患者的严重副作用。它对癌症治疗后的生活质量造成了不良影响。然而，目前的临床策略不能有效地预防这些副作用的发生。因此，迫切需要开发有效的治疗方法。最近，我们发现骨髓来源的细胞（BMDCs）的细胞治疗显示出对放射性诱导的唾液腺功能减退的预防作用。因此，为了开发这种策略，我们检查了具有辐射诱导的唾液腺萎缩和骨坏死的小鼠模型中细胞移植的详细条件。结果，无论是颗粒内或静脉内注射BMDC，年轻和老年小鼠供体在修复辐射唾液腺是有效的。然而，虽然培养的间充质干细胞（MSCs）通过尾静脉注射也能有效地挽救唾液功能低下，但小鼠的存活率严重下降。骨髓间充质干细胞注射后可引起急性肺栓塞。

Salivary gland atrophy or osteonecrosis are serious side effects for patients with head and neck cancer who received radiation- and/or chemo-therapy. It causes the harmful effects on the quality of life after cancer treatment. However, current clinical strategies cannot efficiently prevent the occurrence of these side effects. Therefore, effectivetherapy should be developed urgently. Recently, we have shown that cell therapy with bone marrow derived cells (BMDCs) displays the preventive effects to the radiation-induced salivary gland hypofunction. Therefore, to develop this strategy, we examined the detailed condition of cell transplantation in mouse model that has radiation-induced salivary gland atrophy and osteonecrosis. As results, both intra-grandular or intra-venous injections of BMDCs, and both young and older mouse donors were as effective in repairing irradiated salivary gland. However, though the cultured mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were also effective to rescue the salivary hypofunction by its injection via tail vein, the survival rate of mice was seriously decreased. Cultured MSCs seemed to cause the acute pulmonary embolism after injection.