Prophylactic versus therapeutic role of the transplanted CD34 Umbilical Cord Blood Stem Cells and Wharton Jelly Mesenchymal Stem Cells in early / acute hepatic S. mansoni granulomas reversal in mice; a novel approach.

PURPOSE

Praziquantel (PZQ) is the conventional antibilharzial agent. Nevertheless, no antibilharzial prophylactic agents or 100% curable therapy approved and no reported data about use of human CD34 Umbilical Cord Blood Stem Cells (CD34UCBSCs) or Wharton Jelly Mesenchymal Stem Cells (WJMSCs) in prevention and/or complete eradication of acute S.mansoni granulomas in liver. We aimed to study possible prophylactic vs therapeutic role of human CD34UCBSCs and WJMSCs in acute hepatic bilharzial granulomas in pre vs post-infected mice.

METHODS

Seventy mice were divided into 7 groups (10 mice each): Normal, S.mansoni-infected, post-infected PZQ-treated, CD34UCBSCs pre and post-infected, WJMSCs pre and post-infected. Serological, parasitological, histopathological evaluation using OCT4 & TGFB immunohistochemistry and quantitative image analysis assessment of TGFB-stained fibrogenesis in liver granulomas performed.

RESULTS

Histopathologically, surprisingly and significantly, the prophylactic pre-infection stem cells (CD34UCBSCs and WJMSCs) & similarly the post-infection CD34UCBSCs treatment revealed eradication/reversal of the entire granulomas and no fibrosis. Moreover, post-infection PZQ treatment showed fewer and significantly smaller granulomas than post-infection WJMSCs treatment. Nevertheless, post-infection WJMSCs exhibited non-significant less TGFB-stained fibrogenesis.

CONCLUSION

CD34UCBSCs exerted the best prophylactic and therapeutic roles in prevention and complete cure of acute hepatic S.mansoni granulomas over WJMSCs and PZQ. In contrast, only pre-infection WJMSCs exhibited similar preventive (prophylactic) effect. On the contrary, post-infection WJMSCs were the worst (incompletely reversed granulomas). Post-infection Praziquantel was overall better therapeutically than WJMSCs in this regard. Accordingly, when it comes to WJMSCs application, WJMSCs are better used as a pre-infection prophylactic and preventive tool rather than a post-infection therapy. Further studies are needed.