PERSONNEL

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:

Dra. Maite Iglesias Badiola Ph.D. m.iglesias@ufv

INVESTIGATORS:

Elvira Herrero de Laorden (Predoctoral Investigator PT)
Maria Ángeles Mellen Ph.D.
Javier Galán Ph.D.

EXTERNAL COLLABORATORS:

Miguel Quintanilla Ávila Ph.D.
Gunnel Hallden Ph.D.
Jesús Espada Ph.D.
Maria Calvo Ph.D.

SUMMARY OF THE RESEARCH PROJECT

Placental tissue is a source of cells which have great value in regenerative medicine, given the phenotypic plasticity of these cells. In addition, given that the placenta is involved in the maintenance of foetal tolerance during pregnancy, these cells develop significant immunomodulatory properties that can be used as cellular therapies in the clinical setting.
It has also been demonstrated that these placental cells can be easily isolated and expanded in vitro using an appropriate cell culture media. Thus, placenta-derived stem cells are ideal candidates to be used in the studies proposed for this project.

Our research is centred on two main objectives:

• >>Extract and characterise stem cells derived from human placenta. We propose a follow-up of morphologic, phenotypic and genetic characteristics of the extracted cells at different passage numbers in vitro, aiming to evaluate their stability in culture. This follow-up from initial to later passages will enable the observation of possible phenotypic or genotypic changes resulting from the maintenance of cells in culture, which can result in the loss of stem cell potency.
• >>Based on the migration, proliferation and regeneration potential of stem cells both in vitro and in vivo in response to specific inflammatory or damage signals, the second objective of this project is to study the migratory capacity of placenta-derived stem cells, as well as to investigate their proliferative and regenerative potential. The information obtained from these experiments will allow us to offer an alternative to cell therapy and regenerative medicine assays, currently based on stem cells from other sources or that do not respond in such models. On the other hand, given the immunological advantage of these cells, these could be used as injury-specific drug delivery vehicles.

PUBLICATIONS RELATED TO THE LINE OF RESEARCH

Crespo-Barreda A, Encabo-Berzosa MM, González-Pastor R, Ortíz-Teba P, Iglesias M, Serrano JL, Martin-Duque P. “Viral and Nonviral Vectors for In Vivo and Ex Vivo Gene Therapies”. REF. REVISTA /LIBRO: Libro “Translating Regenerative Medicine to the Clinic” Laurence J (Ed.), Editorial Elsevier Inc. ISBN: 978-0-12-800548-4, 155-177, 2016.

Herrero E. Belmar-Lopez C.; Crespo-Barreda A.; Martin-Duque P.; Iglesias M. “Comparative study on pluripotency and migratory potentials of different MSCs for cell therapies”. HUMAN GENE THERAPY. 27 – 11, pp. 95 – 95. 2016.

Crespo-Barreda A. Herrero E; .Quintanilla M.; Iglesias M.; de la Vieja A.; Martin-Duque P. “Placental MSCs as vehicles for the endogenous Na/I symporter (hNIS): a new theragnostic strategy”. HUMAN GENE THERAPY. 27 – 11, pp. A91 – A91, 2016.

Iglesias, M., Crespo, A. Herrero, E., Encabo, MM., González, R. and Martin-Duque, P. “Translating Gene Therapy to the Clinic: Techniques and Approaches”. REF.REVISTA/LIBRO: Libro “Advances in Translational Medicine series”. Regenerative Medicine: The Hurdles and Hopes. J. Laurence and M. Franklin Eds. Editorial Elsevier Inc. ISBN: 978-0-12-800563-7 Fecha: 2015.

Iglesias M. Crespo-Barreda A. Martin-Duque P. “Translating Gene Therapy to the Clinic: Techniques and Approaches”. REF.REVISTA/LIBRO: Libro “Advances in Translational Medicine series”. Regenerative Medicine: The Hurdles and Hopes. J. Laurence and M. Franklin Eds. Editorial Elsevier Inc. 2015.

Belmar-López, C., Mendoza, G., Öberg, D., Burnet, J., Simon,C., Cervelló, I., Iglesias, M., Ramírez, JC., López-Larrubia,P., Quintanilla, M. and Martin-Duque, P. “Tissue-derived mesenchymal stromal cells employed as vehicles for antitumor therapy exert different in vivo effects on migration capacity and tumor growth”. BMC Medicine, 11:139, 2013. (Según índice de impacto JCR 2013: 6,04, Q1).