Headway and the remaining hurdles of mesenchymal stem cells therapy for bronchopulmonary dysplasia.

OBJECTIVE: Preterm infants are at a high risk of developing BPD. Although progression in neonatal care has improved, BPD still causes significant morbidity and mortality, which can be attributed to the limited therapeutic choices for BPD. This review discusses the potential of MSC in treating BPD as well as their hurdles and possible solutions. DATA SOURCES: The search for data was not limited to any sites but was mostly performed on all clinical trials available in ClinicalTrials.gov as well as on PubMed by applying the following keywords: lung injury, preterm, inflammation, neonatal, bronchopulmonary dysplasia and mesenchymal stem cells. STUDY SELECTIONS: The articles chosen for this review were collectively determined to be relevant and appropriate in discussing MSC not only as a potential treatment strategy for curbing the incidence of BPD but also including insights on problems regarding MSC treatment for BPD. RESULTS: Clinical trials regarding the use of MSC for BPD had good results but also illustrated insights on problems to be addressed in the future regarding the treatment strategy. Despite that, the clinical trials had mostly favourable reviews. CONCLUSION: With BPD existing as a constant threat and there being no permanent solutions, the idea of regenerative medicine such as MSC may prove to be a breakthrough strategy when it comes to treating BPD. The success in clinical trials led to the formulation of prospective MSC-derived products such as PNEUMOSTEM®, and there is the possibility of a stem cell medication and permanent treatment for BPD in the near future.

A Novel System Control for Quality Control of Diagnostic Tests Based on Next-Generation Sequencing.

BACKGROUND: We describe a novel system control (SC) implemented in an automated AmpliSeq™-based next-generation sequencing (NGS)2 run that simultaneously acts as (a) an external positive/sensitivity control, (b) a spike-in QC for DNA extraction, and (c) a nontemplate control to detect exogenous DNA contamination. METHODS: Plasmids carrying wild-type tobacco mosaic virus sequence and a sequence with three designed mutations were synthesized and mixed, such that the mutations are present at 5% variant frequency in the mixture designated as SC. SC was used as a stand-alone sample and spiked into each sample in each run. A cell line-derived reference material, in both a formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) sample and genomic DNA (gDNA), was sequenced in the same runs. RESULTS: By interpolation, 100 fg SC spiked in FFPE sample produced sequencing coverage equivalent to approximately 3 fg in the gDNA. In the SC-only sample, all three designed mutations were recovered around 5% as expected, while no significant reads of human genome were present. In samples with a common PCR inhibitor, coverage for both SC and target amplicons were eliminated. An inverse relationship between the coverage of SC and DNA input was observed. In clinical samples, the ratio of SC to the median coverage of sample can be used to indicate insufficient DNA input. CONCLUSIONS: The SC is an elegant and comprehensive QC concept for NGS-based diagnostic tests.