Principal investigator: Sabrina Jedlicka
University: Lehigh University
Industry partners: DSM Biomedical
Patient-derived stem cells are being actively exploited as experimental therapies for a wide variety of diseases. Populations of regenerative cells, including the immune-privileged mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), exist in various locations in the body. These cells can be extracted using established methods and used in various ways, depending upon the clinical application. The study proposed will focus on one therapy that is currently available through clinics nationwide, known as the bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC) procedure. This procedure effectively concentrates MSCs, as well as a number of other cell types located in bone marrow (such as lymphocytes, monocytes, granulocytes, and platelets), direct from patient bone marrow in the clinic. These therapies suffer from marked variability in cell counts, cell fractions, and patient outcomes; evidence to this point has been collected by the PI over the last two years. To support further development of BMAC-based procedures, the PI proposes a collaborative effort with DSM Biomedical, a company that specializes in the manufacturing of cell concentration devices, one of which is specific to the BMAC protocol. We will additionally collaborate with Sachdev Orthopedics, LLC, a local orthopedic clinic offering the BMAC procedure to patients in the Lehigh Valley. We propose investigating how different instrument settings and different bone marrow properties (density, fat content, initial cell count) influence the final concentrated product. We aim to correlate these concentrated product properties to patient outcomes using the PROMIS scoring method.