Targeted Gene Modification In Hematopoietic Stem Cells: A Potential Treatment For Thalassemia and Sickle Cell Anemia

Blood ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 122 (21) ◽  
pp. 434-434
Author(s):  
Andreas Reik ◽  
Kai-Hsin Chang ◽  
Sandra Stehling-Sun ◽  
Yuanyue Zhou ◽  
Gary K Lee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cells ◽  
Bone Marrow ◽  
Target Gene ◽  
Ex Vivo ◽  
Globin Gene ◽  
Erythroid Differentiation ◽  
Hematopoietic Stem ◽  
Cd34 Cells

Abstract Beta-thalassemia (β-thal) and sickle cell disease (SCD) are monogenic diseases caused by mutations in the adult β-globin gene. A bone marrow transplant (BMT) is the only curative treatment, but its application is limited since (i) HLA-matched donors can be found for <20% of cases, and (ii) the allogeneic nature of the transplant involves the significant risk of graft vs host disease (GvHD). Elevated levels of fetal γ-globin proteins observed in a subset of individuals carrying β-thal and SCD mutations ameliorate the clinical picture or prevent the development of disease complications. Thus, strategies for the selective and persistent upregulation of γ-globin represent an attractive therapeutic approach. Recent insights into the regulation of γ-globin transcription by a network of transcription factors and regulatory elements both inside and outside the β-globin locus have revealed a set of new molecular targets, the modulation of which is expected to elevate γ-globin levels for potential therapeutic intervention. To this end, we and others have established that designed zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) transiently introduced into stem cells ex vivo provide a safe and efficient way to permanently ablate the expression of a specific target gene in hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) by introduction of mutations following target site cleavage and error-prone DNA repair. Here we report the development and comparison of different ZFNs that target various regulators of γ-globin gene transcription in human HSCs: Bcl11a, Klf1, and specific positions in the γ-globin promoters that result in hereditary persistence of fetal hemoglobin (HPFH). In all cases these target sites / transcription factors have previously been identified as crucial repressors of γ-globin expression in humans, as well as by in vitro and in vivo experiments using human erythroid cells and mouse models. ZFN pairs with very high genome editing activity in CD34+ HSCs were identified for all targeted sites (>75% of alleles modified). In vitro differentiation of these ZFN-treated CD34+ HSCs into erythroid cells resulted in potent elevation of γ-globin mRNA and protein levels without significant effects on erythroid development. Importantly, a similar and specific elevation of γ-globin levels was observed with RBC progeny of genome-edited CD34+ cells obtained from SCD and β-thal patients. Notably, in the latter case a normalization of the β-like to α-globin ratio to ∼1.0 was observed in RBCs obtained from genome-edited CD34s from two individuals with β-thalassemia major. To deploy this strategy in a clinical setting, we developed protocols that yielded comparably high levels of target gene editing in mobilized adult CD34+ cells at large scale (>108 cells) using a clinical-grade electroporation device to deliver mRNA encoding the ZFN pair. Analysis of modification at the most likely off-target sites based on ZFN binding properties, combined with the maintenance of target genome editing observed throughout erythroid differentiation (and in isolated erythroid colonies) demonstrated that the ZFNs were both highly specific and well-tolerated when deployed at clinical scale. Finally, to assess the stemness of the genome-edited CD34+ HSCs we performed transplantation experiments in immunodeficient mice which revealed long term engraftment of the modified cells (>16 weeks, ∼25% human chimerism in mouse bone marrow) with maintenance of differentiation in vivo. Moreover, ex vivo erythroid differentiation of human precursor cells isolated from the bone marrow of transplanted animals confirmed the expected elevation of γ-globin. Taken together, these data suggest that a therapeutic level of γ-globin elevation can be obtained by the selective disruption, at the genome level, of specific regulators of the fetal to adult globin developmental switch. The ability to perform this modification at scale, with full retention of HSC engraftment and differentiation in vivo, provides a foundation for advancing this approach to a clinical trial for the hemoglobinopathies. Disclosures: Reik: Sangamo BioSciences: Employment. Zhou:Sangamo BioSciences: Employment. Lee:Sangamo BioSciences: Employment. Truong:Sangamo BioSciences: Employment. Wood:Sangamo BioSciences: Employment. Zhang:Sangamo BioSciences: Employment. Luong:Sangamo BioSciences: Employment. Chan:Sangamo BioSciences: Employment. Liu:Sangamo BioSciences: Employment. Miller:Sangamo BioSciences: Employment. Paschon:Sangamo BioSciences: Employment. Guschin:Sangamo BioSciences: Employment. Zhang:Sangamo BioSciences: Employment. Giedlin:Sangamo BioSciences: Employment. Rebar:Sangamo BioSciences: Employment. Gregory:Sangamo BioSciences: Employment. Urnov:Sangamo BioSciences: Employment.

Induced Hematopoietic Differentiation Of Common Marmoset Embryonic Stem Cells By LYL1 Can Give Rise To Hematopoietic Stem Cells Having The Enhanced Bone Marrow Reconstitution Capability

Blood ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 122 (21) ◽  
pp. 1192-1192
Author(s):  
Hirotaka Kawano ◽  
Tomotoshi Marumoto ◽  
Takafumi Hiramoto ◽  
Michiyo Okada ◽  
Tomoko Inoue ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cells ◽  
Bone Marrow ◽  
Lymphoblastic Leukemia ◽  
Embryonic Stem ◽  
Hematopoietic Differentiation ◽  
Hematopoietic Stem ◽  
Cd34 Cells ◽  
Hsc Transplantation

Abstract Hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation is the most successful cellular therapy for the malignant hematopoietic diseases such as leukemia, and early recovery of host’s hematopoiesis after HSC transplantation has eagerly been expected to reduce the regimen related toxicity for many years. For the establishment of the safer and more efficient cell source for allogeneic or autologous HSC transplantation, HSCs differentiated from embryonic stem cells (ESCs) or induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) that show indefinite proliferation in an undifferentiated state and pluripotency, are considered to be one of the best candidates. Unfortunately, despite many recent efforts, the HSC-specific differentiation from ESCs and iPSCs remains poor [Kaufman, DS et al., 2001][Ledran MH et al., 2008]. In this study, we developed the new method to differentiate HSC from non-human primate ESC/iPSC. It has been reported that common marmoset (CM), a non-human primate, is a suitable experimental animal for the preclinical studies of HSC therapy [Hibino H et al., 1999]. We have been investigated the hematopoietic differentiation of CM ESCs into HSCs, and previously reported that the induction of CD34+ cells having a blood colony forming capacity from CM ESCs were promoted by lentiviral transduction of TAL1 cDNA [Kurita R et al., 2006]. However, those CD34+ cells did not have a bone marrow reconstituting ability in irradiated NOG (NOD/Shi-scid/IL-2Rγnull) mice, suggesting that transduction of TAL1 gene was not sufficient to induce functional HSCs which have self-renewal capability and multipotency. Thus, we tried to find other hematopoietic genes being able to promote hematopoietic differetiation more efficiently than TAL1. We selected 6 genes (LYL1, HOXB4, BMI1, GATA2, c-MYB and LMO2) as candidates for factors that induce the differentiation of ESCs into HSCs, based on the previous study of hematopoietic differentiation from human and mouse ESCs. And CM ESCs (Cj11) lentivirally transduced with the respective candidate gene were processed for embryoid body (EB) formation to induce their differentiation into HSCs for 9 days. We found that lentiviral transduction of LYL1 (lymphoblastic leukemia 1), a basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor, in EBs markedly increased the proportion of cells positive for CD34 (approximately 20% of LYL1-transduced cells). RT-PCR showed that LYL1-transduced EBs expressed various hematopoietic genes, such as TAL1, RUNX1 and c-KIT. To examine whether these CD34+ cells have the ability to differentiate into hematopoietic cells in vitro, we performed colony-forming unit (CFU) assay, and found that CD34+ cells in LYL1-transduced EBs could form multi-lineage blood colonies. Furthermore the number of blood colonies originated from CD34+CD45+ cells in LYL1-transduced EBs was almost the same as that from CD34+CD45+ cells derived from CM bone marrow. These results suggested that enforced expression of LYL1 in CM ESCs promoted the emergence of HSCs by EB formation in vitro. The LYL1 was originally identified as the factor of a chromosomal translocation, resulting in T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia [Mellentin JD et al., 1989]. The Lyl1-deficient mice display the reduction of B cells and impaired long-term hematopoietic reconstitution capacity [Capron C et al., 2006]. And, transduction of Lyl1 in mouse bone marrow cells induced the increase of HSCs and lymphocytes in vitro and in vivo [Lukov GL et al., 2011]. Therefore we hypothesized that LYL1 may play essential roles in bone marrow reconstitution by HSCs differentiated from CM ESCs. To examine this, we transplanted CD34+ cells derived from LYL1-transduced CM ESCs into bone marrow of sublethally irradiated NOG mice, and found that about 7% of CD45+ cells derived from CM ESCs were detected in peripheral blood (PB) of recipient mice at 8 weeks after transplant (n=4). Although CM CD45+ cells disappeared at 12 weeks after transplant, CD34+ cells (about 3%) were still found in bone marrow at the same time point. Given that TAL1-transduced EBs derived from CM ESCs could not reconstitute bone marrow of irradiated mice at all, LYL1 rather than TAL1 might be a more appropriate transcription factor that can give rise to CD34+ HSCs having the enhanced capability of bone marrow reconstitution from CM ESCs. We are planning to do in vivo study to prove this hypothesis in CM. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

scholarly journals Etoposide-Initiated MLL Rearrangements Detected at High Frequency in Human Primitive Hematopoietic Stem Cells with In Vitro and In Vivo Long-Term Repopulating Potential.

Blood ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 106 (11) ◽  
pp. 98-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jolanta Libura ◽  
Marueen Ward ◽  
Grzegorz Przybylski ◽  
Christine Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cells ◽  
Bone Marrow ◽  
Hematopoietic Stem Cells ◽  
Scid Mouse ◽  
P Value ◽  
Hematopoietic Stem ◽  
Cd34 Cells

Abstract Rearrangements involving the MLL gene locus at chromosome band 11q23 are observed in therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes following treatment with topoisomerase II (topoII) inhibitors including etoposide. We have shown that one hour of etoposide exposure (20–50 μM) stimulates stable MLL rearrangements in primary human CD34+ cells and that the spectrum of repair products within MLL gene is broader than so far described (Libura et al, Blood, 2005). Clinical data suggest that MLL-associated malignant leukemias originate within primitive hematopietic stem cells capable of differentiation into all hematopoietic lineages and repopulation of myelo-ablated hosts. These cells can be analyzed using the in vivo NOD-SCID mouse model as well as the in vitro long-term culture initiating cell (LTC-IC) assay. We adopted our in vitro CD34+ cell culture model to investigate the impact of etoposide exposure on the most primitive hematopoietic stem cells using parallel assays for LTC-IC and NOD-SCID Repopulating Cells (SRC). Following etoposide exposure (20–50 μM for 1 hour), and 48–96 hours recovery in vitro, untreated control and etoposide-treated CD34+ cells were either seeded in LTC-IC with a supportive feeder layer (Stem Cell Technologies, Inc.), or injected into NOD-SCID mice (0.1–1.5x106 cells per mouse). After 12 weeks, both LTC-IC cultures and bone marrow cells from NOD-SCID mice were seeded in methylcellulose media supplemented with growth factors that promote only human cell colony formation. An increased number of colonies in etoposide-treated samples was obtained from LTC-IC cultures in 3 out of 5 experiments (p value&lt;0.05). This increase in colony number was more dramatic in etoposide-treated samples from NOD-SCID bone marrow (57 versus 0, 8 versus 0). These data demonstrate that etoposide exposure can significantly alter the potential of early hematopoietic stem cells to survive and proliferate both in vitro and in vivo. Injection of as few as 3x105 CD34+ cells into a NOD-SCID mouse was sufficient to obtain methylcellulose colonies, suggesting that this method can be used for the analysis of cells obtained from a single patient sample. Mutation analysis of human methylcellulose colonies derived from both LTC-IC and NOD-SCID was performed by inverse PCR and ligation-mediated PCR followed by sequencing. This analysis revealed that rearrangements originating within the MLL breakpoint cluster region (bcr) were present in 12 out of 29 colonies from etoposide-treated samples versus 5 out of 39 colonies from control samples (p value &lt;0.01), demonstrating that etoposide exposure promotes stable rearrangements within a hematopoietic stem cell compartment with significant proliferative potential. Eight of the 17 events were sequenced, and showed 6 MLL tandem duplications within intron 8, one complex translocation between MLL and chr.15 and tandem duplication, and one event with foreign sequence of unknown origin. Our data are the first report of the spectrum and frequency of MLL rearrangements following topo II inhibitor exposure in a cell population thought to be the target for recombinogenic events leading to therapy-related leukemias.

Enhanced Engraftment and Maintenance of CXCR4 Expressing CD34+ Cells In Vivo Is Related to Microenvironmental Interactions, Rather Than Direct Receptor Signaling to Hematopoietic Stem Cells.

Blood ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 106 (11) ◽  
pp. 2306-2306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi J. Anderson ◽  
Ravi Bhatia
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cells ◽  
Bone Marrow ◽  
Hematopoietic Stem Cells ◽  
Progenitor Cell ◽  
Hematopoietic Cell ◽  
Hematopoietic Stem ◽  
Cell Engraftment ◽  
Cd34 Cells

Abstract Interaction of the chemokine receptor CXCR4 with its ligand SDF-1α (SDF) has been reported to play an important role in engraftment of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) in the bone marrow (BM). However a critical requirement for CXCR4 in HSC engraftment is still controversial. It also remains unclear whether the effects that CXCR4 has on hematopoietic cell engraftment are related to enhanced homing of HSC to the bone marrow cavity, increased retention in marrow microenvironment or direct and indirect effects of CXCR4 stimulation on stem and progenitor cell proliferation, self-renewal and survival. To address these questions we have overexpressed CXCR4 in human cord blood CD34+ cells by transduction with an MSCV retroviral vector containing CXCR4 and eGFP (MIG-CXCR4). CXCR4 overexpressing cells were compared with control cells transduced with vectors expressing eGFP alone (MIG). CD34+eGFP+ cells were selected after transduction by flow cytometry sorting. We confirmed that CD34+ cells transduced with the MIG-CXCR4 vector demonstrated increased CXCR4 expression compared with MIG vector transduced controls (mean channel fluorescence for CXCR4 was 340±77.8 for MIG-CXCR4 transduced CD34+ cells compared with 142±37.1 for MIG transduced cells, n=8). MIG-CXCR4 transduced CD34+ cells demonstrated significantly enhanced chemotaxis to SDF in transwell migration assays (36±2% migration for MIG-CXCR4 vs. 20±4% migration for MIG transduced CD34+ cells to 100nM SDF-1, n=4, p=0.05). CD34+ cells transduced with MIG-CXCR4 demonstrated a 1.52±0.4 fold increase in expansion of total cell number compared with controls after 1 week of in vitro culture with growth factors (GF) [SCF (50ng/ml), TPO (100ng/ml), FL (100ng/ml), SDF (60ng/ml), n=3]. However, enhanced cellular expansion was not sustained on further GF culture. To evaluate the effect of CXCR4 overexpression on in vivo engraftment, CD34+ cells transduced with MIG-CXCR4 and MIG vectors were injected intravenously into sublethally irradiated NOD/SCID mice and human hematopoietic cell engraftment was evaluated after 6–8 weeks. MIG-CXCR4 transduced cells demonstrated significantly higher levels of engraftment with human CD45+ cells compared with MIG transduced cells (8±4.8% vs. 0.22±0.07% CD45+ cells in bone marrow, 1.3±0.9% vs. 0.2±0.09% CD45+ cells in spleen, and 1.8±1.0% vs. 0.3±0.25% CD45+ cells in peripheral blood for MIG-CXCR4 vs. MIG transduced cells, respectively, n=5). In addition, markedly higher levels of CD34+ cell engraftment was observed in the bone marrow of animals receiving MIG-CXCR4 vs. MIG transduced cells (1.7±1.0% vs. 0.06±0.03% CD34+ cells respectively, n=5). Consistent with this, the human CFC frequency in bone marrow of mice receiving MIG-CXCR4 transduced CD34+ cells was increased compared to mice receiving MIG transduced cells (31±0.5 CFC/100,000 cells vs. 5±3.2 CFC/100,000 cells, n=2,3, respectively). In conclusion, our results indicate that ectopic expression of CXCR4 in CD34+ cells results in enhanced engraftment of human hematopoietic cells and increased maintenance of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells in the NOD/SCID mouse model. The effects of CXCR4 overexpression are considerably more prominent in vivo than in direct in vitro assays. It therefore appears that altered stem and progenitor cell homing and microenvironmental interaction, rather than direct signaling to HSC, may be responsible for enhanced CD34+ cell engraftment and maintenance following CXCR4 receptor overexpression.

Strategies to Protect Hematopoietic Stem Cells from Culture-Induced Stress Conditions

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatima Aerts-Kaya
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cells ◽  
Hematopoietic Stem Cells ◽  
Ex Vivo ◽  
Stress Conditions ◽  
Stress Factors ◽  
Hematopoietic Stem ◽  
Induced Stress

: In contrast to their almost unlimited potential for expansion in vivo and despite years of dedicated research and optimization of expansion protocols, the expansion of Hematopoietic Stem Cells (HSCs) in vitro remains remarkably limited. Increased understanding of the mechanisms that are involved in maintenance, expansion and differentiation of HSCs will enable the development of better protocols for expansion of HSCs. This will allow procurement of HSCs with long-term engraftment potential and a better understanding of the effects of the external influences in and on the hematopoietic niche that may affect HSC function. During collection and culture of HSCs, the cells are exposed to suboptimal conditions that may induce different levels of stress and ultimately affect their self-renewal, differentiation and long-term engraftment potential. Some of these stress factors include normoxia, oxidative stress, extra-physiologic oxygen shock/stress (EPHOSS), endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, replicative stress, and stress related to DNA damage. Coping with these stress factors may help reduce the negative effects of cell culture on HSC potential, provide a better understanding of the true impact of certain treatments in the absence of confounding stress factors. This may facilitate the development of better ex vivo expansion protocols of HSCs with long-term engraftment potential without induction of stem cell exhaustion by cellular senescence or loss of cell viability. This review summarizes some of available strategies that may be used to protect HSCs from culture-induced stress conditions.

Isolation and characterization of human CD34−Lin− and CD34+Lin− hematopoietic stem cells using cell surface markers AC133 and CD7

Blood ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 95 (9) ◽  
pp. 2813-2820 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Gallacher ◽  
Barbara Murdoch ◽  
Dongmei M. Wu ◽  
Francis N. Karanu ◽  
Mike Keeney ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cells ◽  
Stem Cell ◽  
Surface Markers ◽  
Cell Surface Markers ◽  
Hematopoietic Stem ◽  
Human Cd34 ◽  
Cd34 Cells

Recent evidence indicates that human hematopoietic stem cell properties can be found among cells lacking CD34 and lineage commitment markers (CD34−Lin−). A major barrier in the further characterization of human CD34− stem cells is the inability to detect this population using in vitro assays because these cells only demonstrate hematopoietic activity in vivo. Using cell surface markers AC133 and CD7, subfractions were isolated within CD34−CD38−Lin− and CD34+CD38−Lin− cells derived from human cord blood. Although the majority of CD34−CD38−Lin− cells lack AC133 and express CD7, an extremely rare population of AC133+CD7− cells was identified at a frequency of 0.2%. Surprisingly, these AC133+CD7− cells were highly enriched for progenitor activity at a frequency equivalent to purified fractions of CD34+ stem cells, and they were the only subset among the CD34−CD38−Lin− population capable of giving rise to CD34+ cells in defined liquid cultures. Human cells were detected in the bone marrow of non-obese/severe combined immunodeficiency (NOD/SCID) mice 8 weeks after transplantation of ex vivo–cultured AC133+CD7− cells isolated from the CD34−CD38−Lin− population, whereas 400-fold greater numbers of the AC133−CD7− subset had no engraftment ability. These studies provide novel insights into the hierarchical relationship of the human stem cell compartment by identifying a rare population of primitive human CD34− cells that are detectable after transplantation in vivo, enriched for in vitro clonogenic capacity, and capable of differentiation into CD34+ cells.

High-level ectopic HOXB4 expression confers a profound in vivo competitive growth advantage on human cord blood CD34+ cells, but impairs lymphomyeloid differentiation

Blood ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 101 (5) ◽  
pp. 1759-1768 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernhard Schiedlmeier ◽  
Hannes Klump ◽  
Elke Will ◽  
Gökhan Arman-Kalcek ◽  
Zhixiong Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cells ◽  
Cord Blood ◽  
Therapeutic Window ◽  
Hematopoietic Stem ◽  
Expression Levels ◽  
Cd34 Cells ◽  
Cord Blood Cd34 ◽  
The Impact

Ectopic retroviral expression of homeobox B4 (HOXB4) causes an accelerated and enhanced regeneration of murine hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and is not known to compromise any program of lineage differentiation. However, HOXB4 expression levels for expansion of human stem cells have still to be established. To test the proposed hypothesis that HOXB4 could become a prime tool for in vivo expansion of genetically modified human HSCs, we retrovirally overexpressed HOXB4 in purified cord blood (CB) CD34+ cells together with green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a reporter protein, and evaluated the impact of ectopic HOXB4 expression on proliferation and differentiation in vitro and in vivo. When injected separately into nonobese diabetic–severe combined immunodeficient (NOD/SCID) mice or in competition with control vector–transduced cells, HOXB4-overexpressing cord blood CD34+ cells had a selective growth advantage in vivo, which resulted in a marked enhancement of the primitive CD34+ subpopulation (P = .01). However, high HOXB4 expression substantially impaired the myeloerythroid differentiation program, and this was reflected in a severe reduction of erythroid and myeloid progenitors in vitro (P < .03) and in vivo (P = .01). Furthermore, HOXB4 overexpression also significantly reduced B-cell output (P < .01). These results show for the first time unwanted side effects of ectopic HOXB4 expression and therefore underscore the need to carefully determine the therapeutic window of HOXB4 expression levels before initializing clinical trials.

Human Embryonic Stem Cell (hESC)-Derived Hematopoietic Elements Are Capable of Engrafting Primary as well as Secondary Fetal Sheep Recipients.

Blood ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 104 (11) ◽  
pp. 2685-2685
Author(s):  
A. Daisy Narayan ◽  
Jessica L. Chase ◽  
Adel Ersek ◽  
James A. Thomson ◽  
Rachel L. Lewis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cells ◽  
Bone Marrow ◽  
Peripheral Blood ◽  
Fetal Sheep ◽  
Hematopoietic Stem ◽  
Blood Samples ◽  
Human Dna ◽  
Cd34 Cells ◽  
Hematopoietic Activity

Abstract We used transplantation into 10 and 20 pre-immune fetal sheep recipients (55–65 days-old, term: 145 days) to evaluate the in vivo potential of hematopoietic elements derived from hESC. The in utero human/sheep xenograft model has proven valuable in assessing the in vivo hematopoietic activity of stem cells from a variety of fetal and post-natal human sources. Five transplant groups were established. Non-differentiated hESC were injected in one group. In the second and third group, embroid bodies differentiated for 8 days were injected whole or CD34+ cells were selected for injection. In the fourth and fifth group, hESC were differentiated on S17 mouse stroma layer and injected whole or CD34+ cells were selected for injection. The animals were allowed to complete gestation and be born. Bone marrow and peripheral blood samples were taken periodically up to over 12 months after injection, and PCR and flowcytometry was used to determine the presence of human DNA/blood cells in these samples. A total of 30 animals were analyzed. One primary recipient that was positive for human hematopoietic activity was sacrificed and whole bone marrow cells were transplanted into a secondary recipient. We analyzed the secondary recipient at 9 months post-injection by PCR and found it to be positive for human DNA in its peripheral blood and bone marrow. This animal was further challenged with human GM-CSF and human hematopoietic activity was noted by flowcytometry analyses of bone marrow and peripheral blood samples. Further, CD34+ cells enriched from its bone marrow were cultured in methylcellulose and human colonies were identified by PCR. We therefore conclude that hESC are capable of generating hematopoietic cells that engraft in 1° sheep recipients. These cells also fulfill the criteria for long-term engrafting hematopoietic stem cells as demonstrated by engraftment and differentiation in the 20 recipient.

Therapeutic Effect of HOXB4-Expanded Stem Cells in Mice with Beta Thalassemia Given a Non-Myeloablative Conditioning Regimen.

Blood ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 108 (11) ◽  
pp. 341-341
Author(s):  
Silvia Bakovic ◽  
Patricia M. Rosten ◽  
Connie J. Eaves ◽  
R. Keith Humphries
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cells ◽  
Gene Therapy ◽  
Ex Vivo ◽  
Globin Gene ◽  
Conditioning Regimen ◽  
Beta Thalassemia ◽  
Mouse Bone Marrow ◽  
Myeloablative Conditioning ◽  
Hematopoietic Stem

Abstract The ultimate promise of gene therapy for patients with hemoglobinopathies depends on the development of safe strategies for achieving 2 goals. One is to obtain efficient and permanent correction of the gene defect in autologous hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). The second is to develop methods for the pre-transplant amplification of transduced HSCs to high levels to ensure that they will outcompete the large residual endogenous HSC population remaining in non-myeloablated hosts (e.g. previous experiments have shown that a minimum of ~5 × 106 normal adult mouse bone marrow (BM) cells (~500 HSC) is required to achieve a level of chimerism of 20% in mice given 200 cGy). The ability of HOXB4 to promote HSC self-renewal divisions in short term culture prior to their use as transplants offers an attractive approach to achieve this latter goal. As a first test we transduced day-4 5FU BM cells from normal mice with a MSCV-HOXB4-IRES-GFP or control MSCV-IRES-GFP virus and then transplanted the cells either before or after 7 days maintenance in vitro into normal recipients given 250 cGy. Mice transplanted with an estimated 50 HSCs immediately after transduction with either virus reached equivalent low levels of chimerism (~10%) showing that HOXB4 does not impart an in vivo selective growth advantage under sublethal conditions. After ex vivo culture, the GFP transduced cells yielded an even lower level of chimerism (~5%), in contrast recipients of cultured HOXB4-transduced cells attained much higher stable levels of lympho-myeloid chimerism (~50%), indicative of a marked expansion of the HSCs pre-transplant and their retention of robust competitive repopulating potential. We then applied this approach to a gene therapy model of severe β-thalassemia in mice bearing a homozygous deletion of the β-major globin gene (β-MDD). To model a transplant of genetically corrected cells, BM cells were harvested from day-4 5FU pre-treated congenic wild-type donors and transduced with the HOXB4 virus. Cells were then cultured for 10 days and the progeny of 200K starting cells transplanted into 3 β-MDD and 4 normal recipients given 200 cGy. Transplantation of 500K freshly harvested day-4 5FU BM cells into 4 similarly conditioned control mice failed to produce significant chimerism (1–3% at 5 months). In contrast, all 4 control recipients of ex vivo expanded HOXB4-transduced cells exhibited significant stable chimerism (21±6% at 5 months). Similar levels of chimerism were also achieved in all 3 β-MDD recipients (18–76%), one of which was sustained at 34% at 5 months (52% in the RBCs). This was associated with substantial improvement in the Hct (36% vs 23% in untreated β-MDD), Hb (10.5 vs 5 g/dl) and RBC morphology. Southern blot analyses performed on 53 individual in vitro-expanded myeloid colonies generated from FACS-selected GFP+ marrow cells from this mouse 2 months post-transplant showed 19 distinct integration patterns indicating reconstitution from polyclonal expanded HSCs. This conclusion was further confirmed by proviral integration site analyses, which identified 13 separate integration sites from 9 colonies that had unique proviral patterns. These data demonstrate the curative potential of ex vivo expanded HSCs in a preclinical model of β-thalassemia treated with non-myeloablative conditioning. They also underscore the potential of HOXB4 as a potent tool to achieve the HSC expansions required.

Engraftment of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells upon Transplantation into Newborn Rag2−/−gc−/− Mice.

Blood ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 108 (11) ◽  
pp. 1652-1652
Author(s):  
Patrick Ziegler ◽  
Steffen Boettcher ◽  
Hildegard Keppeler ◽  
Bettina Kirchner ◽  
Markus G. Manz
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cells ◽  
Bone Marrow ◽  
Cord Blood ◽  
Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells ◽  
Rt Pcr ◽  
Hematopoietic Stem ◽  
Gm Csf ◽  
Cd34 Cells ◽  
Gene Transcripts

Abstract We recently demonstrated human T cell, B cell, dendritic cell, and natural interferon producing cell development and consecutive formation of primary and secondary lymphoid organs in Rag2−/−gc−/− mice, transplanted as newborns intra-hepatically (i.h.) with human CD34+ cord blood cells (Traggiai et al., Science 2004). Although these mice support high levels of human cell engraftment and continuous T and B cell formation as well as CD34+ cell maintenance in bone marrow over at least six month, the frequency of secondary recipient reconstituting human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells within the CD34+ pool declines over time. Also, although some human immune responses are detectable upon vaccination with tetanus toxoid, or infection with human lymphotropic viruses such as EBV and HIV, these responses are somewhat weak compared to primary human responses, and are inconsistent in frequency. Thus, some factors sustaining human hematopoietic stem cells in bone marrow and immune responses in lymphoid tissues are either missing in the mouse environment, or are not cross-reactive on human cells. Human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) replicate as undifferentiated cells and are capable to differentiate to multiple mesenchymal tissues such as bone, cartilage, fat, muscle, tendon, as well as marrow and lymphoid organ stroma cells, at least in vitro (e.g. Pittenger et al., Science 1999). Moreover, it was shown that MSCs maintain CD34+ cells to some extend in vitro, and engraft at low frequency upon transplantation into adult immunodeficient mice or fetal sheep as detected by gene transcripts. We thus postulated that co-transplantation of cord blood CD34+ cells and MSCs into newborn mice might lead to engraftment of both cell types, and to provision of factors supporting CD34+ maintenance and immune system function. MSCs were isolated and expanded by plastic adherence in IMDM, supplemented with FCS and cortisone (first 3 weeks) from adult bone marrow, cord blood, and umbilical vein. To test their potential to support hemato-lymphopoiesis, MSCs were analyzed for human hemato-lymphotropic cytokine transcription and production by RT-PCR and ELISA, respectively. MSCs from all sources expressed gene-transcripts for IL-6, IL-7, IL-11, IL-15, SCF, TPO, FLT3L, M-CSF, GM-CSF, LIF, and SDF-1. Consistently, respective cytokines were detected in supernatants at the following, declining levels (pg/ml): IL-6 (10000-10E6) > SDF-1 > IL-11 > M-CSF > IL-7 > LIF > SCF > GM-CSF (0–450), while FLT3L and TPO were not detectable by ELISA. Upon i.h. transplantation of same passage MSCs (1X10E6) into sublethally irradiated (2x2 Gy) newborn Rag2−/−gc−/− mice, 2-week engraftment was demonstrated by species specific b2m-RT-PCR in thymus, spleen, lung, liver and heart in n=7 and additionally in thymus in n=3 out of 13 animals analyzed. Equally, GFP-RNA transcripts were detectable in the thymus for up to 6 weeks, the longest time followed, upon co-transplantation of same source CD34+ cells and retrovirally GFP-transduced MSCs in n=2 out of 4 animals. Further engraftment analysis of ongoing experiments will be presented. Overall, these results demonstrate that human MSC produce hemato-lymphoid cytokines and engraft in newborn transplanted Rag2−/−gc−/− mice, at least at early time-points analyzed. This model thus might allow studying hematopoietic cell and MSC-derived cell interaction, and might serve as a testing system for MSC delivered gene therapy in vivo.

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