Mesenchymal stem cells remain host-derived independent of the source of the stem-cell graft and conditioning regimen used.

Background: Human bone marrow contains hematopoietic stem cells and stroma cells known as mesenchymal stem cells (MSC). MSC are cells with the morphological features of fibroblasts, which, in addition to their nursing function for hematopoietic stem cells, retain the ability to differentiate into cartilage, bone, fat, muscle, and tendon and have an important immunmodulatory function. To understand in more detail hematopoietic engraftment and immune modulation after hematopoietic cell transplantation, we investigated the ability of donor MSC to engraft after hematopoietic cell transplantation in dependency to the conditioning regimen (myeloablative vs. reduced intensity) and source of the graft (bone marrow vs. peripheral blood).

Methods: Bone marrow MSC of 12 patients were analyzed, a median of 23.4 (range 0.9-137.8) months after human leukocyte antigen matched but gender mismatched bone marrow transplantation after myeloablative conditioning (n=4) or peripheral blood cell transplantation after myeloablative (n=4) or reduced intensity conditioning (n=4). MSC were characterized by morphology, positivity for CD 105+, CD73+, CD 44+, and CD 90+, and by their capacity to differentiate into adipocytic and osteogenic cells. Recipient and donor origins were determined by fluorescent in situ hybridization for sex chromosomes.

Results: While overall blood and bone marrow chimerism was 100% donor type, MSC remained in all patients of recipient origin (>96%). There was no difference between patients receiving bone marrow and peripheral blood grafts, nor was any difference observed between patients receiving full intensity in comparison with reduced intensity conditioning.

Conclusions: We conclude that MSC remain of host type irrespective of the conditioning regimen and graft source.