Previous and Current Research

Martin Bornhäuser leads the clinical transplantation program within the Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik I which has become the second largest center for allogeneic HSCT in Germany. About 130 allogeneic and 80 autologous transplants are performed each year. Major improvements have been achieved in the molecular characterisation of leukaemia patients who benefit from transplantation compared to conventional therapy (Bornhauser et al.,  2007).  The GMP units located in the department of haematology have allowed developing new cellular therapeutics including the use of third-party MSC for the treatment of steroid-refractory Graft-versus Host disease (Von Bonin et al.,  2008). Efforts to improve the efficacy of adoptive immunotherapy after transplantation by the infusion of ex-vivo activated donor CD8+ T cells have been successful in patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia (Bornhauser et al.,  2006).

Preclinical research has been focuses on the interaction of HSC and MSC during coculture and the relevance of endogenous BMP production for the osteogenic differentiation of MSC (Seib et al.,  2008). New ways to influence the differentiation of MSC pharmacological interventions have been explored (Fierro et al.,  2007).

Selected Publications

Bornhäuser,M., Illmer,T., Schaich,M., Soucek,S., Ehninger,G., Thiede,C. (2007): Improved outcome after stem-cell transplantation in FLT3/ITD-positive AML. Blood 109, 2264-2265.

von,Bonin.M., Stolzel,F., Goedecke,A., Richter,K., Wuschek,N., Holig,K., Platzbecker,U., Illmer,T., Schaich,M., Schetelig,J., Kiani,A., Ordemann,R., Ehninger,G., Schmitz,M., Bornhäuser,M. (2008): Treatment of refractory acute GVHD with third-party MSC expanded in platelet lysate-containing medium. Bone Marrow Transplant.

Seib FP, Müller K, Franke M, Grimmer M, Bornhäuser M, Werner C. Engineered extracellular matrices modulate the expression profile and feeder properties of bone marrow-derived human multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells. Tissue Eng Part A. 2009, Epub ahead of print.

Fierro F, Illmer T, Jing D, Schleyer E, Ehninger G, Boxberger S, Bornhäuser M. Inhibition of platelet-derived growth factor receptorbeta by imatinib mesylate suppresses proliferation and alters differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells in vitro. Cell Prolif. 2007;40:355-366.

Bornhäuser M, Thiede C, Babatz J, Schetelig J, Illmer T, Kiani A, Platzbecker U, Herr W, Rieber EP, Ehninger G, Schmitz M. Infusion of bcr/abl peptide-reactive donor T cells to achieve molecular remission of chronic myeloid leukemia after CD34+ selected allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation. Leukemia. 2006;20:2055-2057.

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