Homing and Engraftment of Intravenously Administered Equine Cord Blood-Derived Multipotent Mesenchymal Stromal Cells to Surgically Created Cutaneous Wound in Horses: A Pilot Project.
Suzanne J K Mund, Eiko Kawamura, Awang Hazmi Awang-Junaidi, John Campbell, Bruce Wobeser, Daniel J MacPhee, Ali Honaramooz, Spencer Barber
Author Information
Suzanne J K Mund: Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5B4, Canada. ORCID
Eiko Kawamura: WCVM Imaging Centre, Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5B4, Canada.
Awang Hazmi Awang-Junaidi: Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences, Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5B4, Canada. ORCID
John Campbell: Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5B4, Canada.
Bruce Wobeser: Department of Veterinary Pathology, Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5B4, Canada.
Daniel J MacPhee: Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences, Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5B4, Canada.
Ali Honaramooz: Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences, Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5B4, Canada. ORCID
Spencer Barber: Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5B4, Canada.
Limb wounds on horses are often slow to heal and are prone to developing exuberant granulation tissue (EGT) and close primarily through epithelialization, which results in a cosmetically inferior and non-durable repair. In contrast, wounds on the body heal rapidly and primarily through contraction and rarely develop EGT. Intravenous (IV) multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are promising. They home and engraft to cutaneous wounds and promote healing in laboratory animals, but this has not been demonstrated in horses. Furthermore, the clinical safety of administering >1.00 × 10 allogeneic MSCs IV to a horse has not been determined. A proof-of-principle pilot project was performed with two horses that were administered 1.02 × 10 fluorescently labeled allogeneic cord blood-derived MSCs (CB-MSCs) following wound creation on the forelimb and thorax. Wounds and contralateral non-wounded skin were sequentially biopsied on days 0, 1, 2, 7, 14, and 33 and evaluated with confocal microscopy to determine presence of homing and engraftment. Results confirmed preferential homing and engraftment to wounds with persistence of CB-MSCs at 33 days following wound creation, without clinically adverse reactions to the infusion. The absence of overt adverse reactions allows further studies to determine effects of IV CB-MSCs on equine wound healing.
