Advances in homing defects repair of umbilical cord blood hematopoietic stem cells by fucosylation

Delayed engraftment of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) is the major problem of umbilical cord blood transplantation (UCBT), which causes fatal infection and increases transplantation related death, restricting application of cord blood transplantation. Defect in umbilical cord blood HSC homing is one of the reason affect engraftment. Researchers found fucosylation could fix this defect in umbilical cord blood HSC. This process is easy handled, convenient, safe and effective, and umbilical cord blood HSC retain self-renew and differentiation after fucosylation. We summarized related experiments and clinical trials that focus on fucosylation of umbilical cord blood HSC in this paper. Key words: Cord blood stem cell transplantation; Homing behavior; Fucosyltransferases