CD133+ SCs represent a heterogeneous stem and progenitor cell population with promising potential for regenerative medicine. Their hematopoietic, endothelial, and myogenic differentiation potential1,2,3 enables the CD133+ cells, e.g., to contribute to neovascularization processes through differentiation into newly forming vessels and activation of pro-angiogenic signaling by paracrine mechanisms4,5,6,7.
Despite their high potential demonstrated in more than 30 approved clinical trials (ClinicalTrails.gov), their therapeutic outcome is still under controversial discussion4. Indeed, a clinical application of SCs is hampered by low retention in the organ of interest and massive initial cell death5,8,9. Additional engineering of CD133+ SCs prior transplantation could help overcome these challenges.
One prerequisite for an efficient cell therapy would be the reduction of the massive initial cell death to enhance the engraftment of therapeutic relevant cells10. Current studies demonstrated an immense cell loss of 90–99% in highly perfused organs such as the brain and heart during the first 1–2 h, independent of the transplanted cell type or application route11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21. SC labeling using magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) enables an innovative non-invasive strategy to target cells to the site of interest22,23,24,25,26 and simultaneously allows cell monitoring using MRI27 and magnetic particle imaging (MPI). The most efficient in vivo studies applying magnetized cell targeting used cell retention after local administration in preference to cell guidance after intravenous injection23,24,28. Therefore, our group designed a delivery system consisting of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles29. With this technique, CD133+ SCs and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) could efficiently be targeted, as demonstrated by in vitro attempts30,31.
Another hurdle for SC therapies is the hostile inflammatory environment of the affected tissue after transplantation, which contributes to the initial cell death32. In addition to several pre-conditioning studies, the application of therapeutic relevant miRs was tested33; it has been successfully demonstrated that anti-apoptotic miRs inhibit apoptosis in vitro and enhance cell engraftment in vivo33. These small molecules, composed of 20–25 nucleotides, play a crucial role as posttranscriptional modulators of messenger RNAs (mRNAs), and thus affect stem cell fate and behavior34. Moreover, the exogenous introduction of miRs avoid the undesired stable integration into the host genome34.
Current attempts for efficient introduction of nucleic acids (NAs) into primary SCs are mostly based on recombinant viruses8,35. Despite the high transfection efficiency, recombinant virus manipulation presents a major obstacle for a bench-to-bedside translation, e.g., uncontrollable gene expression, pathogenicity, immunogenicity, and insertional mutagenesis35,36. Therefore, non-viral delivery systems such as polymer-based constructs are critical to develop. Among those, polyethylenimine (PEI) represents a valid delivery vehicle offering benefits for miRs such as NA condensation to protect from degradation, cellular uptake, and intracellular release through endosomal escape37,38. Furthermore, miR-PEI complexes demonstrated a high biocompatibility in clinical trials39. Therefore, our delivery system consists of a biotinylated branched 25 kDa PEI bound to a streptavidin-coated MNP-core30,31,40.
In this manuscript, we present a comprehensive protocol describing (i) the manual isolation of CD133+ SC from human bone marrow (BM) donation with a detailed characterization of the SC product and (ii) an efficient and gentle transfection strategy of a magnetically non-viral polymer-based delivery system for genetic engineering of CD133+ SCs using miRs. CD133+ SCs are isolated and magnetically enriched from human sternal BM aspirates using a surface antibody-based magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS) system. Afterwards, the cell viability as well as the cell purity are analyzed using flow cytometry. Subsequently, miR/PEI/MNP complexes are prepared and CD133+ SCs are transfected. 18 h after transfection, the uptake efficiency and the impact of transfection on SC marker expression and cell viability are analyzed. Moreover, evaluation of the intracellular distribution of the transfection complex compounds is performed using four-color labeling and structured illumination microscopy (SIM).