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Graft vs Host DiseaseNCT00023491

Potential of Transplanted Stem Cells to Mature Into Salivary Gland and Cheek Cells

An observational study of Graft vs Host Disease and Sjogren's Syndrome, run by National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) at 1 site in United States.

Completed

Finished. The study has ended and is not enrolling. Results may be posted on the official record.

Official record
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Trial summary

This study will examine whether transplanted stem cells can turn into salivary gland cells in stem cell recipients. If so, stem cells might be used to restore salivary gland function in patients with Sjogren's syndrome and other causes of dry mouth. Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Any age, women only
Conditions the study is for
Graft vs Host Disease, Sjogren's Syndrome
How many people
10 participants
Where
1 siteUnited States
Study dates
Sep 2001to Oct 2004
Phase
Observational
Are there results?
None posted in the registry

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages Any age
  • Women only
  • No healthy volunteers
  • Child, Adult, Older adult

Who may be able to join

  • We will review medical records of patients enrolled in NHLBI protocol who are 18 years of age or older.

Who cannot join

  • This study excludes any subjects younger than 18 years old.
  • Female subjects recruited for this study would ideally have no prior history of male childbearing or abortion.

Trial locations and contacts

1 site in 1 country.

United States1 site
  • National Institute of Dental And Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)

    Bethesda, Maryland, 20892

Other trials in United States

About this study

Official title: Assessment of the Potential of Hematopoietic Stem Cells to Transdifferentiate Into Salivary Gland and Oral Mucosal Epithelial Cells in Adult Bone Marrow Transplant Patients

This study will examine whether transplanted stem cells can turn into salivary gland cells in stem cell recipients. If so, stem cells might be used to restore salivary gland function in patients with Sjogren's syndrome and other causes of dry mouth. People with severe dry mouth may develop difficulty swallowing, severe tooth decay, infections of the mouth and pharynx, and mouth sores.

Female patients 18 years of age and older who are enrolled in the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's protocol 97-H-009 or 97-H-0202 and who have received a stem cell transplant from a male donor may be eligible for this study. Five patients with graft-versus host disease (GVHD) and five without GVHD will be included. GVHD is a transplantation reaction in which the donor's cells mount an immune response against the recipient's tissues. Patients with chronic GVHD have mouth ulcerations and dry mouth similar to that of patients with Sjogren's syndrome. Five healthy female volunteers will also be enrolled.

Read more

Participants will have a medical and dental history. Then, cells will be collected from the inside of the cheek (buccal cell scraping) and from the salivary glands (labial gland biopsy) as described below:

Buccal cell scraping - Cells are collected from the inside of the cheek by wiping for 5 seconds with a plastic brush.

Labial glands biopsy - The lower lip will be numbed and a small incision will be made on the inside of the lower lip. Six small salivary glands in the lower lip will be removed and the incision will be closed with four stitches.

Cells collected from these procedures will be examined to see if donated stem cells turned into salivary gland or cheek cells.

Patients will return to the clinic 5 to 10 days after the biopsy to have the stitches removed and assess healing.

Read the detailed description

Patients with Sjogren's syndrome (1-2 million in the U.S.), and patients exposed to ionizing radiation during therapy for head and neck cancer (~40,000 new patients/year in the U.S.), experience severe salivary gland hypofunction. In both patient groups, via different pathogenic mechanisms, acinar cells in the glands are lost. These cells are the sole site of fluid production in salivary glands, and such patients cannot produce adequate levels of saliva, leading to considerable morbidity (xerostomia, dysphagia, dental caries, oro-pharyngeal infections, and mucositis). In many patients, all parenchymal tissue may be lost. For this latter group, there is no available therapy as they are not candidates for either pharmacological or gene therapy if little to no epithelial tissue remains. Recent reports suggest that organ-specific stem cells can differentiate into cells of other organs. These findings carry significant implications for possible clinical use. This protocol will investigate if adult human hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) can transdifferentiate into salivary gland and oral mucosal epithelial cells. We will recruit female bone marrow transplant recipients (from existing NHLBI protocols) who have received HSC from a male donor. This gender-mismatched strategy will allow us to detect cells of donor origin by using an RNA probe specific to the human Y chromosome. A biopsy of labial minor salivary glands and a cheek scraping will be obtained from female transplant patients. The biopsy causes minimal discomfort and the cheek scraping is a non-invasive technique. Both procedures are used routinely for clinical diagnosis. The samples will be co-stained for specific genetic and protein markers for salivary gland or oral mucosal epithelial cells, respectively. Cells positive for these markers (Y chromosome, cytokeratins, mucin 1, and NKCC1) would indicate that the donor's HSC became functionally competent salivary gland epithelial cells. This protocol will also examine bone marrow transplant recipients with chronic Graft-versus-Host Disease (GVHD). These patients show similar complications (xerostomia and oral mucositis) as those encountered in patients with Sjogren's Syndrome. We hypothesize that GVHD may provide a positive recruitment signal for HSC to home to salivary and oral mucosal sites. This protocol will recruit 5 female bone marrow transplant recipients without GVHD and 5 with GVHD. The primary potential benefit of this study is that if HSC can turn into salivary gland cells, they could be used to regenerate lost salivary gland tissues or to seed an artificial salivary gland for patients with irreversible salivary gland damage.

Keywords
Sjogren's Syndrome, Peripheral Blood Stem Cell, Tissue Regeneration, Graft-versus-host Disease, Head and Neck Cancer, Salivary Gland, Saliva Gland, Salivary Gland Dysfunction
Medical subject headings
Graft vs Host Disease, Sjogren's Syndrome, Head and Neck Neoplasms

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted7 Sep 2001 (estimated)
  2. Study startSep 2001
  3. Study completionOct 2004

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Observational
Enrolment
10 participants
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT00023491
Sponsor's protocol ID
010234
Other IDs
01-D-0234
Status last verified
Oct 2004
First submitted
7 Sep 2001
Last updated
4 Mar 2008
Results posted
No

Publications

  • Aframian DJ, Cukierman E, Nikolovski J, Mooney DJ, Yamada KM, Baum BJ. The growth and morphological behavior of salivary epithelial cells on matrix protein-coated biodegradable substrata. Tissue Eng. 2000 Jun;6(3):209-16. doi: 10.1089/10763270050044380.

    PubMed 10941215
  • Baum BJ, Wang S, Cukierman E, Delporte C, Kagami H, Marmary Y, Fox PC, Mooney DJ, Yamada KM. Re-engineering the functions of a terminally differentiated epithelial cell in vivo. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1999 Jun 18;875:294-300. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1999.tb08512.x.

    PubMed 10415576
  • Baum BJ. Principles of saliva secretion. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1993 Sep 20;694:17-23. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1993.tb18338.x. No abstract available.

    PubMed 8105741

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

An observational study of Graft vs Host Disease and Sjogren's Syndrome, run by National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) at 1 site in United States.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 1 inclusion and 2 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 4 Mar 2008. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

Are results available for this study?

The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

Where can I read the original study information?

On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT00023491, which also lists 3 linked publications.

Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 4 Mar 2008.

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