Crohn s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), the 2 major sub-types of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), are chronic, life-long conditions characterized by relapsing inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. CD has a predilection for the small bowel and the proximal large bowel; however, it can affect the gastrointestinal tract discontinuously anywhere. UC mainly affects the distal colon but can involve the entire colon as well. In spite of advances in IBD therapeutics, a significant number of patients continue to have symptoms while on conventional medications. The current protocol proposes to study infusions of allogenic bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) for the treatment of active IBD.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety of BMSC infusions in subjects with IBD and to examine the host clinical and immunologic response to BMSCs. BMSCs possess multi-lineage differentiation potential in bone marrow, and aid in the repair of damaged tissue. They suppress the lymphocyte immune response and target sites of inflammation to promote healing through tissue regeneration. Studies are underway examining the utility of BMSCs to treat several conditions including neurologic disorders, myocardial infarctions, rheumatologic disorders, and gastrointestinal disorders including acute graft-versus-host-disease and IBD. Progress in the understanding of the cell populations involved in the pathogenesis of IBD and the discovery of the potential immunologic and regenerative characteristics of BMSCs have created a new potential direction for IBD therapy.
This phase I study will enroll subjects with moderate-to-severe IBD who are refractory to or intolerant of standard therapy. Under the guidance of the NIH Bone Marrow Stromal Cell Transplantation Center, the Cell Processing Section of the Department of Transfusion Medicine at the Clinical Center has developed a procedure for collecting, expanding, and cryopreserving clinical grade BMSCs under an FDA Drug Master File. Marrow will be aspirated from volunteer donors participating on protocol 10-CC-0053 who have passed the standard screening for blood and marrow donors; BMSCs will be expanded in vitro. Since it is not necessary to HLA-match BMSC donors with their recipients, a BMSC repository will be used as the source of BMSCs for this study.
In Arm 1, the safety of the BMSC infusion dosage (4 x 106 cells/kg/dose 10%) and schedule (once a week for 4 weeks) will be evaluated in 3 non-overlapping IBD subjects. Once safety is established in these subjects, subsequent subjects in Arm 2 will be enrolled without overlap restriction. Subjects will return to the clinic for safety and response assessments at 28, 56, 84, and 112 days after the first infusion. Additional safety visits will be performed at 180, 360 and 720 days after the first infusion. Safety will be monitored by a Data and Safety Monitoring Board. Response to study drug will be assessed in all patients by changes in symptom scores, endoscopic/histologic findings, quality of life scores, and immunologic/laboratory parameters. Fifty subjects will be evaluated over a 5-year period.