Intravenous infusion of allogeneic mesenchymal stromal cells in refractory or relapsed aplastic anemia

Abstract

Background aims: For patients with aplastic anemia (AA) who are refractory to anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG) and cyclosporine, a second course of immunosuppression is successful in only one-fourth to one-third of cases.

Methods: We conducted a phase 1/2 study to evaluate the addition of two to five weekly intravenous infusions of allogeneic unrelated non-human leukocyte antigen-matched bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) (median, 2.7 × 10(6) cells/kg/infusion; range, 1.3-4.5) to standard rabbit ATG and cyclosporine in nine patients with refractory or relapsed AA.

Results: After a median follow-up of 20 months, no infusion-related adverse event was observed, but four deaths occurred as the result of heart failure and bacterial or invasive fungal infections; only two patients achieved partial hematologic responses at 6 months. We failed to demonstrate by fluorescence in situ hybridization or variable number tandem repeat any MSC engraftment in patient marrow 30, 90 or 180 days after infusions.

Conclusions: Infusion of allogeneic MSCs in AA is safe but does not improve clinical hematologic response or engraft in recipient bone marrow. This study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov, identifier: NCT01297972.

Keywords: aplastic anemia; immunosuppression; mesenchymal stromal cell engraftment; mesenchymal stromal cells.