The Survey on Cellular and Engineered Tissue Therapies in Europe in 2010

Following the coordinated efforts of five established scientific organizations, this report describes the novel cellular therapy activity in Europe for the year 2010. One hundred six teams from 27 countries responded to the cellular therapy survey, 69 teams from 21 countries provided data on 1010 patients using a dedicated survey; 37 teams reported no activity. These data were combined with an additional 260 records reported by 37 teams in 15 countries to the standard European group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) database. Indications were graft-vs.-host-disease (GvHD; 26%; 11% autologous), musculoskeletal disorders (25%; 93% autologous), cardiovascular disorders (20%; 100% autologous), epithelial disorders (16%; 44% autologous), autoimmune diseases (11%; 55% autologous), and neurological disorders (2%; 62% autologous). Autologous cells were predominantly used for musculoskeletal (39%) and cardiovascular (32%) disorders, whereas allogeneic cells were mainly used for GvHD (58%) and epithelial disorders (23%). The reported cell types were mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSC; 49%), hematopoietic stem cells (28%), chondrocytes (10%), dermal fibroblasts (4%), keratinocytes (1%), and others (8%). In 63% of the grafts, cells were delivered following ex vivo expansion, whereas cells were transduced or sorted respectively in 10% or 28% of the reported cases. Cells were delivered intraorgan (45%), intravenously (31%), on a membrane or gel (20%) or using 3D scaffolds (4%). Compared with last year, the number of teams adopting the dedicated survey was 1.25-fold higher and, with few exceptions, the collected data confirmed the captured trends. This year's edition specifically discusses scientific, clinical, regulatory, and commercial aspects related to the use of cell therapy for the repair of cartilage defects.