Long-term bone marrow culture and its clinical potential in chronic wound healing

Bone marrow-derived cells have long been regarded to play a crucial role in the homeostasis of skin. We have previously described the clinical benefit of directly applying autologous bone marrow aspirate and cultured bone marrow cells to recalcitrant chronic skin wounds. The initial response to treatment appears to be vascular in nature with the formation of new blood vessels. The difficulty in consistently growing adequate numbers of cells for delivery to patients was, however, a limiting factor. Here, in a subsequent protocol, we describe an improved bone marrow culture system yielding a reliable growth of bone marrow cells and leading to a greater clinical response. Cells expressing markers of endothelial progenitors including CD133, CD146, and particularly CD14 are enhanced in these cultures. CD14-isolated cells produced colonies in endothelial cell assays and sprouting in matrigel assays. Angiogenic cytokines, including angiogenin, epithelial neutrophil-activating protein-78, growth-regulated oncogene, growth-regulated oncogene-alpha, Interleukin-8, CXC16, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, were found to be elevated in these cultures. Administration of improved culture cells to patients with chronic wounds present for > 1 year lead to an enhanced clinical response.