Scientific Director: David N. Wald, MD, PhD Assistant Professor, Pathology dnw@case.edu

Services

The Hematopoietic Stem Cell Core Facility serves as a resource for procurement and processing of human hematopoietic cells derived from human blood, bone marrow, and umbilical cords, for the members of the Cancer Center.

Facility Objectives

• To distribute human blood, umbilical cord blood and bone marrow cells to investigators
• To perform standard assays of hematopoiesis (Colony-Forming Units [CFU], Burst-Forming Units [BFU], etc.) with the Hematologic Malignancies and Stem Cell transplant program
• To perform hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cell analysis for evaluation of reconstitution after transplantation. In this capacity, the facility serves as a quality control laboratory for clinical trials.

Procurement and Distribution
The facility procures and distributes human cell samples to Cancer Center investigators including:

• Bone marrow from normal donors
• Bone marrow from patients undergoing bone marrow harvest (only those determined to contain excess cells beyond clinical need)
• Blood from normal donors
• Peripheral blood hematopoietic progenitor cell collections from normal donors
• Peripheral blood hematopoietic progenitor cell collections from patients with hematologic malignancies (only those determined to contain excess cells beyond clinical need)
• Umbilical cord blood (UCB) samples for research
• Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells
• Immortalized peripheral blood lymphocytes

Processing
Samples are delivered directly to the investigators or are processed as required for the experimental endpoint. Processing may include any of the following:

• Separation of mononuclear cells by density gradient (Ficoll-Hypaque or Percoll)
• Adherence depletion of mononuclear cells
• CD34+ cell enrichment using the VarioMACS system

Analysis of Hematopoietic Progenitor Content
Human and murine stem cell assays are performed on samples provided by investigators or procured by the facility. The facility maintains culture medium, methylcellulose preparations, and a comprehensive stock of growth factors to stimulate and grow hematopoietic progenitor cells from human, rat, and mouse.

A variety of assay systems are used:

• Hematopoietic progenitor cell assays (CFU-GM, CRU-GEMM, BFU-E)
• CFU-MEGA Assay
• LTC-IC (in-vitro progenitor/stem cell assay)

Resources

Biosafety cabinet, Forma Scientific
Cytospin centrifuge, Shandon Lipshaw
Tissue culture incubators (2), Forma Scientific
IBM Computers (2)
Frostless refrigerator/freezer, Sears
MacIntosh Power G3
Tabletop centrifuge, Sorvall RT7
FACScan Software
Microcentrifuge, Epindorf
Olympus regular and inverted microscopes

Unique resources

• Cytokine stocks (human and mouse origin): G-CSF, GM-CSF, M-CSF, Interleukins IL-1, 3 and 6, stem cell factor and Flt-3 ligand
• VarioMACS columns/antibody cocktails for routine separation of CD34+ cells and other cell subsets
• Enriched populations of mouse and human cells including T- and B-cells, monocytes, lymphocytes, NK-cells, dendritic cells, erythroid cells, megakaryocytes, and hematopoietic tumor cells

Fees

List of Fees Under Construction

The facility maintains IRB approval for the procurement service and stem cell assays for human bone marrow. Investigators should obtain IRB approval for their own studies. For normal donors and discarded samples, investigators may use the Core Facility IRB protocol.

Acknowledgement

Remember to acknowledge the valuable services provided by Cancer Center Core Facilities in your research papers and publications:
"This research was supported by the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Core Facility of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center (P30 CA43703)."

Contact for Information

Location: Wolstein Research Building, 2-204

Scientific Director: David N. Wald, MD, PhD
216.368.5668
dnw@case.edu

Core Manager: Nyoka Lovelace
216.368.8537
nsl4@case.edu