Five-Year Follow-up after Mesenchymal Stromal Cell–based Treatment of Severe Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

• Published in: American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine 2020-10, Vol.202 (7), p.1051-1055
• Main Authors: Simonson, Oscar E., Ståhle, Elisabeth, Hansen, Tomas, Wedin, Johan O., Larsson, Anders, Mattsson, Mattias, Volchkov, Pavel, Le Blanc, Katarina, Rodin, Sergey, Grinnemo, Karl-Henrik
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Correspondence; Hypoxemia; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Respiratory diseases; Respiratory distress syndrome; Respiratory failure; Stem cells; Ventilators
• ISSN: 1073-449X; 1535-4970; 1535-4970
• DOI: 10.1164/rccm.202003-0544LE

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a life-threatening condition characterized by uncontrolled bilateral inflammatory response with infiltrations in the lungs followed by noncardiac hypoxemic respiratory failure. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) might be considered to stabilize patients with extreme hypoxemia but has not proven superior to conventional therapy for decreasing 60-day mortality. The regional ethic review board at Uppsala, Sweden (Dnr:2017/255) has approved this 5-year follow-up study of two patients with severe ARDS treated on a compassionate use basis with a single intravenous infusion of thawed, cryopreserved, minimally expanded, HLA-mismatched, allogeneic BM-MSCs from the same donor. The descriptive data for the two patients at the time of BM-MSC infusion are summarized. Despite different etiologies of ARDS, after BM-MSC infusion, there was a subsequent resolution of respiratory and multiorgan failure, leading to weaning off the ECMO system after 24 and 8 days and from mechanical ventilation after 41 and 12 days for patient 1 and 2, respectively.