Stuart Hodgetts
  1. Current research activities

    2. Cell biology, molecular biology and immunological techniques are being used to enhance the survival of human bone marrow stem cells after injection into nude rats as a potential treatment for Spinal cord injury (SCI). The novel repair strategy uses engineered multipotent human bone marrow stromal stem cells (hMSCs) transgenically expressing GFP. The aim is to create optimal conditions for spinal tissue sparing, neuronal replacement as well as regrowth of lesioned spinal cord (SC) motor pathways. Self-inactivating, replication incompetent lentiviral (LV) and retroviral vectors will be used to transduce the hMSCs and introduce the reporter gene encoding GFP, allowing their fate to be monitored after transplantation into the contused spinal cord.

  2. Keywords

    3. Transplantation, Spinal Cord Repair, Myoblast Transfer Therapy (MTT), Immunotherapy

  3. End-user applications

    • Spinal cord injury (SCI) patients with complete or partial paralysis below the level of injury.
    • Recent research into myoblast transfer therapy is aimed at providing a potential cell based therapy for the treatment of boys with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

  4. Key publications

    5. I. Hodgetts, S.I., Beilharz, M.W., Scalzo, A.A. and Grounds, M.D. (2000). "Why Do Cultured Transplanted Myoblasts Die In Vitro? DNA Quantification Shows Enhanced Survival of Donor Male Myoblasts in Host Mice Depleted of CD4+ and CD8+ or NK1.1+ Cells." Cell Transplantation 9(4): 489-502.
    II. Stuart I Hodgetts and Miranda D Grounds. (2001) "Complement and myoblast transfer therapy: Donor myoblast survival is enhanced following depletion of host complement C3 using cobra venom factor, but not in the absence of C5". Immunology and Cell Biology 79 (3): 231-239.
    III. Stuart I. Hodgetts, and Miranda D. Grounds. (2001). "Natural Killer Cells and the Death of Donor Myoblasts in Myoblast Transfer Therapy." Cell Transplantation 10 (6) p512.
    IV. Hodgetts,S.I. Spencer, M. and Grounds, M.D. (2003) "A Role for Natural Killer Cells in the Rapid Death of Cultured Donor Myoblasts After Transplantation " Transplantation 75: p863-871.
    V. Hodgetts,S.I. and Grounds, M.D. (2003). "Irradiation of dystrophic host tissue prior to Myoblast Transfer Therapy enhances initial (but not long-term) survival of donor myoblasts." (Journal of Cell Science - Accepted for Publication June 2003).

  5. Outreach activities

    6. Tissue Engineering and Research Centre (TERC) website coordinator and news distributor.

  6. Key organisation membership

    7. Not as Yet

  7. Early career researcher?

    8. No.

  8. Young investigator?

    9. No.

  9. Skills and expertise

    • PhD in cell biology
    • Tissue Culture Unit "Manager"
    • 6 years research in MTT
    • TERC website coordinator
    • Extensive tissue culture experience

  10. Specialist equipment and infrastructure

    •  Spinal cord contusion injury equipment
    • Tissue culture facilities

    (All at the School of Anatomy and Human Biology, University of Western Australia)

© 2004

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