Identification of a long-term surviving human mesenchymal stromal cell subpopulation and implications for…

StudyStem cell research & therapy· Jun 2026

Identification of a long-term surviving human mesenchymal stromal cell subpopulation and implications for recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa treatment.

Mathilde Bonnet des Claustres, Sonia Gaucher, Francesco Carbone … Matthias Titeux

Pediatric DermatologyStudyQ1IF 7.4

1% of injected stem cells survive over a year in mouse skin

Identification of a long-term surviving human mesenchymal stromal cell subpopulation and implications for recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa treatment.

Mathilde Bonnet des Claustres … Matthias Titeux

Stem cell research & therapy · Jun 2026 · Q1 in General Medicine

Background

Recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa) is a severe skin disease caused by loss-of-function pathogenic variants in COL7A1 encoding type VII collagen (C7).

Purpose

We aim to optimize in vitro conditioning of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (BM-mesenchymal stromal cells) to improve their limited survival following local injection in a murine model.

Methods

BM-MSCs from healthy human donors were transduced with a lentiviral vector encoding firefly luciferase and mCherry reporter proteins and then subjected to various culture conditions: monolayer on plastic or spheroid culture, either in hypoxia (5% O 2 ) or in normoxia (21% O 2 ).

1%

Results

1%

nearly all injected cells die off, but a small share persist over a year

More results

scRNAseq analysis revealed marked variations between monolayer and spheroid conditions, which were significantly impacted by oxygen level.

Remarkably, none of the in vitro preconditioning strategies appeared to affect their survival capacity or functional properties following local injection.

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Conclusion

The identification and characterization of a BM-MSC subpopulation capable of long-term survival following intradermally injection hold promise for the development of improved cell therapy protocols for recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa.

Identification of a long-term surviving human mesenchymal stromal cell subpopulation and implications for recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa treatment.

Identification of a long-term surviving human mesenchymal stromal cell subpopulation and implications for recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa treatment.

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