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Umbilical cord blood (UCB)-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) enhance the engraftment of human hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) when they are cotransplanted in animal and human studies. However, the type of MSCs that preferentially facilitate the engraftment and homing of HSCs is largely unknown. The authors categorized UCB-MSCs as the least-effective MSCs (A) or most-effective MSCs (B) at enhancing the engraftment of HSCs, and compared the gene expression profiles of various cytokines and growth factors in the UCB-MSC populations. The most-effective UCB-MSCs (B) secreted higher levels of several factors, including chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 12 (CXCL12), regulated upon activation, normal T cells expressed and secreted (RANTES), epithelial growth factor (EGF), and stem cell factor (SCF), which are required for the engraftment and homing of HSCs. By contrast, levels of growth-related oncogene (GRO), insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 1 (IGFBP1), and interleukin-8 (IL-8), which are associated with immune inflammation, were secreted at higher levels in UCB-MSCs (A). In addition, there were no differences between the transcripts of the 2 UCB-MSC populations after interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) stimulation, except for cyclooxygenase (COX)-1. Based on these findings, the authors propose that these chemokines may be useful for modulating these cells in a clinical setting and potentially for enhancing the effectiveness of the engraftment and homing of HSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]