Abstract
First of all, I would like to inform Cell Transplantation readers that we successfully held the first joint conference of the Japan Society for Organ Preservation and Medical Biology (JSOPMB) and Cell Transplantation Society (CTS) on April 20–21, 2009, in Okayama, Japan.
As the President of this memorable joint conference, I am thankful from the bottom of my heart that many researchers from all over the world came to Okayama to participate in this joint conference. I believe that this is an important step for us, getting together with CTS members.
Cell transplantation is one of the most important medical fields in the JSOPMB, because this form of therapy can be useful for a wide range of diseases. Addressing the current problem of the severe human donor organ shortage for cell therapies is a big challenge.
Studies on adult and embryonic stem cells and artificial cell development, in addition to the recent and rapidly evolving invention of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, encourages us to answer the problems confronting cell transplantation. Thus, the JSOPMB has now importantly focused on regenerative medicine in collaboration with cell biologists.
One of the essential missions of the annual meeting of the JSOPMB is to exchange new research results and create new therapeutic concepts. The JSOPMB always encourages and motivates young researchers. In this aspect, the joint conference of JSOPMB with CTS was extremely meaningful for young investigators as well as senior researchers.
Excellent presentations, a total of 29, performed at the 36th annual meeting of JSOPMB (the first joint meeting of JSOPMB with CTS) in Okayama under the supervision of Dr. N. Kobayashi (Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery, Okayama University Hospital, Okayama, Japan) were selected and given an opportunity to be published.
Twenty-seven of these presentations are featured in this special JSOPMB issue of Cell Transplantation, one presentation has already been featured in Cell Medicine: Part B of Cell Transplantation, and one will be published in Cell Medicine: Part B of Cell Transplantation, which is a sister journal of Cell Transplantation.
There were two reviews on liver-targeted regenerative medicine. One of them is focused on differentiation of iPS cells to hepatocytes (7) and has already been published in Cell Medicine and the other appears in this special issue.
Liver tissue engineering is a big challenge in the field of cell transplantation. Seven articles focus on liver-targeted regenerative medicine. These ranged from the culturing of hepatocytes in the presence of polydimethylsiloxane membranes to how sheet engineering technologies can regulate the cell shape. Hepatocytes were also cultured using a spheroid culture system, or were propagated in mouse livers, with one study confirming the generation of coagulation and anticoagulation factors and another study demonstrating repopulation under p21-mediated cell conditions. The final liver-related study assessed the contribution of matrix metalloproteinase-9 to homing of transplanted bone marrow-derived cells.
Cell therapy is a big concern in diabetes treatment. To achieve a better outcome following islet transplantation is one of the important issues in humans. Therefore, 12 articles relate to islet transplantation. Six of them focus on the methods available for islet isolation, including different aspects of tissue digestion, purification, and preservation of islets. The remaining studies look at different aspects of transplantation, including the effectiveness of fresh islets for transplantation, whether immunoisolation of islets by macroencapsulation is beneficial for transplantation, and whether mizoribine is useful as the sole immunosuppressive agent for islet xenotransplantation. Another study reports on the adverse events experienced following islet transplantation at their institution, while another study reports on a method to isolate islets from chronic pancreatitis patients prior to transplantation. The final study looks at the relationship between islet isolation and kidney transplantation from the same non-heart-beating donor.
Two further studies also look at the kidneys, including one that determined whether the pharmacodynamics of the immunosuppressant tacrolimus were altered in kidney transplant patients also treated with basiliximab (an antibody to the interleukin-2 receptor on T cells) as well as the beneficial effects of carbamylated erythropoietin against cyclosporine-induced nephropathy. The ability of mesenchymal stem cells following short (conventional) but not long-term (cloned) culturing to suppress graft-versus-host disease was explored in the lymph node-transplanted rat, while the ability of osteogenically differentiated mouse iPS cells to repair bone is explored in another report. An additional study, which will be published in Cell Medicine, looks at whether bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cells can promote revascularization in chronic peripheral arterial occlusive disease. Platelet-rich plasma containing white blood cells was found to promote wound healing compared with normal platelet rich plasma. Finally, two studies report on the preservation of rat heart cells by desiccation and human progenitor cells by using the silk protein sericin.
On behalf of the JSOPMB, I express my sincere appreciation to Professor Paul R. Sanberg (Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, College of Medicine, University of South Florida, FL, USA), Coeditor-in-Chief of Cell Transplantation, for providing us such an excellent opportunity to publish the data presented at the annual meeting of JSOPMB. I also thank Dr. David Eve, Associate Editor of Cell Transplantation, for the editing of our manuscripts in a very careful manner.
The JSOPMB was started in 1974 for the study of organ preservation and developed widely in the 1990s with the participation of researchers in various fields of medicine, pharmacology, engineering, veterinary medicine, and basic science. Currently the JSOPMB has more than 500 members and is run under the direction of new JSOPMB president Dr. T. Asano.
I am sure that the relationship among Cell Transplantation and its sister journal Cell Medicine and JSOPMB has enhanced the motivation of JSOPMB members as well as board members and will continue to do so in the future, while encouraging young Japanese researchers to join this organization.
Editing this special issue is my last work. I have been happy to fulfill my task of editing the special JSOPMB issue for the past 7 years. Especially, I want to give my best regards to Dr. David Eve for his great assistance to me.