Investigating the Efficacy of Hyperbaric Oxygen in Modulating IL-6 and EPO in Stem Cell Transplant Patients
ISEF · 2023 Biomedical and Health Sciences
Overview
Although stem cell transplants have made promising clinical progress as a treatment for leukemia and other blood cancers, their safety and the severe complications they pose have significantly limited their efficacy and widespread use. Setbacks with stem cell transplants (SCTs) are widely attributed to one post-transplant complication: engraftment syndrome (ES). This inflammatory complication results in many transplant mortality-related incidents due to the conditions that arise from the influx of IL-6 that characterizes ES. Such conditions include capillary leak, a condition in which the contents of capillaries leak into surrounding tissues, resulting in dangerously low blood pressure, and pulmonary infiltrates. As such, this research aims to propose a preventative measure against ES to overcome the risks that SCTs pose. In this study, hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) was administered to designated patients prior to undergoing an allogeneic stem cell transplant as part of their preparative regimen. Tissue samples were collected 1-day pre-transplant (day -1) and up to 100 days post-transplant. Samples from day -1, day 7, and day 15 were analyzed via an ELISA to indirectly quantify levels of IL-6 by converting optical density to concentration (pg/mL). Additionally, erythropoietin (EPO) readings for each timepoint were taken from a mentor database and analyzed as an indicator for hypoxia post-transplant. Findings indicate that HBOT did decrease the severity of ES post-transplant, as evidenced by significantly lower levels of IL-6 and EPO in samples from patients treated with HBOT (p<0.05). Thus, this study successfully establishes the potential for HBOT to be a preventative treatment for ES and sets the groundwork for eliminating one of the major risks posed by SCTs.
Competition history
- ISEF 2023
Resources
Related projects
ISEF · 2021
Mechanisms Responsible for the Greater Therapeutic Efficacy of Cardiac Mesenchymal Cells Cultured at Physiologic Oxygen Tension in Mice with Heart Failure Caused by Myocardial Infarction
ISEF · 2019
Physiologic Oxygen Tension Enhances Proliferation, Resistance to Hypoxic Stress, and Telomerase Activity of Mouse Cardiac Mesenchymal Stem Cells
ISEF · 2019
Optimizing Bone Marrow Cryopreservation for Primitive Hematopoietic Stem Cell Compartment Studies Using Flow Cytometry Analysis
ISEF · 2026
Integrated Deconvolution of Oxidative, Colloidal, and Rheological Failure Modes Governing Microvascular Oxygen Delivery in Hemoglobin-Based Oxygen Carriers Under Field-Mimicking Thermal Cycling
Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.
Source: Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair