Surface coating of bone marrow cells with N-acetylglucosamine for bone marrow implantation therapy

Bone marrow implantation (BMI) has been performed clinically for the treatment of ischemic cardiovascular diseases. To achieve BMI effectively, accumulation of many bone marrow cells (BMCs) in an infarcted area of the myocardium is important. Previously, we reported that cardiomyocytes show strong interaction with N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) and they can take up GlcNAc-conjugated liposomes. Thus, we examined whether GlcNAc-coated BMCs exhibit strong interaction with cardiomyocytes. The cell surface of BMCs was coated with GlcNAc without causing cell injury by GlcNAc-lipophilic polymers. It was found that the GlcNAc-coated BMCs exhibited strong interaction with cardiomyocytes. At 7 days of coculturing the GlcNAc-coated BMCs with cardiomyocytes, BMC-derived cardiomyocytes were generated. The number of BMC-derived cardiomyocytes was higher following coculture with GlcNAc-coated BMCs than following coculture with uncoated and maltose (MA)-coated BMCs. In this study, we demonstrated that the surface coating of BMCs with GlcNAc can be performed easily by using GlcNAc-lipophilic polymers and that GlcNAc-coated BMCs exhibited strong interaction with cardiomyocytes. Therefore, we think that cell surface coating with GlcNAc would help promote accumulation of BMCs in the infarcted area of the myocardium and that this accumulation would be helpful in the treatment of ischemic cardiovascular diseases with BMI.