What is Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)?
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease involving multiple organs, which is involved in various factors such as heredity, environment, and hormones. What we can see is the appearance of butterfly erythema, discoid erythema on the skin, repeated, multiple oral ulcers, and distressed hair loss. On the other hand, the quietly growing pleural effusion we may not see or feel at the moment, the neoplasms that breed in the heart, the devastated glomeruli, etc., can sometimes be more deadly. Clinical treatment is relatively difficult, and it is prone to occur in young women. The disease is progressive, and recurrence and remission often occur in the course of the disease.
Systemic lupus erythematosus is known as a “chronic cancer” in the private world. It is a worldwide medical problem. It is a common autoimmune inflammatory disease characterized by multiple systemic damage with multiple autoantibodies. The domestic incidence rate is 0.4% – 0.8%. It is more common in women of childbearing age, and children and the elderly can also develop symptoms. The core of its pathogenesis is due to defects and collapse of autoimmune tolerance, limited apoptosis mechanism, leading to disorder of immune regulation, producing a large number of autoantibodies, especially antinuclear antibodies, causing immune complex deposition and cell damage. As a result, chronic inflammatory progressive aggravation of multiple systemic multiple organs can cause considerable mortality and disability.
In the past, the treatment of lupus erythematosus was long-term hormone and drug treatment, but the quality of life of patients was significantly reduced, and it had a heavy economic and mental burden. Long-term use of hormones and immunosuppressive agents have serious toxic side effects, which can aggravate kidney damage or cause uremia, induce digestive tract ulcers, gastrointestinal perforation, bone marrow suppression, hair loss, hemorrhagic cystitis, etc., and even cause serious infections. , fatal complications such as aseptic osteonecrosis.
Stem cells and systemic lupus erythematosus
Stem cells have high self-renewal ability and multi-directional differentiation potential, and have strong tissue repair and immunomodulatory ability. Stem cells have plasticity in immune regulation. According to different types and levels of inflammatory cytokines, stem cells can be expressed in inflammation sites. The ability to immunosuppress or enhance.
Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for systemic lupus erythematosus
The human immune cells are derived from the development and differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation can cause disease control, decreased antibody titers, and the disease can be relieved in the long term. Stem cells have a variety of immunomodulatory effects, which not only support hematopoietic function, but also inhibit the production of antibodies and repair damaged tissues.
Hematopoietic stem cells (HSC), also known as pluripotent stem cells, are the originator of the hematopoietic system. They have the potential to develop and differentiate into various myeloid cells and lymphocytes, and also have certain self-renewal ability, which can be reconstructed by transplantation. Hematopoietic system and immune system. Since various immune cells, immunoregulatory factors, antibodies, complements, etc. have changed after hematopoietic stem cell treatment, the original immune network and balance have been broken, and a new balance may be reached in the process of immune reconstitution.
The occurrence of the disease is closely related to the abnormal function of the immune cells of the body, and the immune cells are produced by the differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells, so that hematopoietic stem cell transplantation can fundamentally cure the disease.
At our Cryo Stem Cell Center, treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus is divided into two major steps:
• the first step is to stimulate the proliferation of bone marrow hematopoietic stem cells and release it into peripheral blood, then separate the normal hematopoietic stem cells and purify them in vitro.
• the second step is to use a large dose of immunosuppressive agent to completely remove the abnormal immune cells in the body, and then return the first processed hematopoietic stem cells to the patient. Normal hematopoietic stem cells transplanted into the body will rebuild the patient’s immune system after growth and reproduction, thereby achieving the purpose of treating systemic lupus erythematosus. The method can also be used to treat rheumatic diseases such as systemic scleroderma, Sjogren’s syndrome, and rheumatoid arthritis.
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