Pulmonary Passage is a Major Obstacle for Intravenous Stem Cell Delivery: The Pulmonary First-Pass Effect

Intravenous (IV) stem cell delivery for regenerative tissue therapy has been increasingly used in both experimental and clinical trials. However, recent data suggest that the majority of administered stem cells are initially trapped in the lungs. We sought to investigate variables that may affect this pulmonary first-pass effect. In anesthetized Sprague-Dawley rats, silicone tubing catheters were placed in the left internal jugular vein and common carotid artery. We investigated four different cell types: mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC), multipotent adult progenitor cells (MAPCs), bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells (BMMC), and neural stem cells (NSC). Cells were co-labeled with Qtracker 655 (for flow…

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  Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board