Widespread Nonhematopoietic Tissue Distribution by Transplanted Human Progenitor Cells with High Aldehyde Dehydrogenase Activity

Abstract

Transplanted adult progenitor cells distribute to peripheral organs and can promote endogenous cellular repair in damaged tissues. However, development of cell-based regenerative therapies has been hindered by the lack of preclinical models to efficiently assess multiple organ distribution and difficulty defining human cells with regenerative function. STEM CELLS 2008; 26:611-620 Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest is found at the end of this article.

ALDH1A1 defines invasive cancer stem-like cells and predicts poor prognosis in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

“…Thus, ALDH1A1-expressing cells have a crucial role in the initiation and progression of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. ALDH1A1 is a predominant isoform of aldehyde dehydrogenase family in mammals located in the cytoplasm 15,16 and is originally considered as a marker for normal hematopoietic progenitor cells, 17 and is also found in cancer cells with stem cell property, that is, cancer stem-like cells, in several malignant tumors including leukemia, 9 breast cancer 7 and lung cancer. 8,18 Wang et al 19 reported that ALDH1A1 was located in the nuclei of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cells.…”

Concise Review: Aldehyde Dehydrogenase Bright Stem and Progenitor Cell Populations from Normal Tissues: Characteristics, Activities, and Emerging Uses in Regenerative Medicine

“…Cells derived from uncultured CB ALDHbr cells during a 2 to 3-month period after transplantation can home to several nonhematopoietic tissues in response to chronic injury caused by genetic lysosomal storage disease [43] and by CCl 4 -induced liver damage [44] in mouse xenograft models. Such dispersion of human cells to tissues was not observed in animals engrafted with ALDHlow cells.…”

Revascularization of ischemic limbs after transplantation of human bone marrow cells with high aldehyde dehydrogenase activity

“…22 We have previously shown that human umbilical cord blood cells selected for high ALDH activity (ALDH hi ) were enriched for hematopoietic repopulating cells 23,24 and exhibited widespread distribution of nonhematopoietic (CD45 Ϫ ) cells after transplantation into the ␤-glucuronidase-deficient nonobese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficiency/mucopolysaccharidosis type VII (NOD/SCID/MPSVII) mouse. 25 Thus, nonhematopoietic cells with potentially proangiogenic functions may also possess high ALDH activity, 26 whereas cultured mature ECs with enhanced proliferative and migratory activity were previously shown to be ALDH-low. 27 Here we show that selection of human BM cells with high ALDH activity purifies a functionally heterogeneous group of hematopoietic and nonhematopoietic colony-forming cells based on a conserved progenitor cell function.…”