scholarly journals Ascorbic acid supports ex vivo generation of plasmacytoid dendritic cells from circulating hematopoietic stem cells

eLife ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Laustsen ◽  
Renée M van der Sluis ◽  
Albert Gris-Oliver ◽  
Sabina Sánchez Hernández ◽  
Ena Cemalovic ◽  
...  

Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) constitute a rare type of immune cell with multifaceted functions, but their potential use as a cell-based immunotherapy is challenged by the scarce cell numbers that can be extracted from blood. Here, we systematically investigate culture parameters for generating pDCs from hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs). Using optimized conditions combined with implementation of HSPC pre-expansion, we generate an average of 465 million HSPC-derived pDCs (HSPC-pDCs) starting from 100,000 cord blood-derived HSPCs. Furthermore, we demonstrate that such protocol allows HSPC-pDC generation from whole blood HSPCs, and these cells display a pDC phenotype and function. Using GMP compliant medium, we observe a remarkable loss of TLR7/9 responses, which is rescued by ascorbic acid supplementation. Ascorbic acid induces transcriptional signatures associated with pDC-specific innate immune pathways suggesting an undescribed role of ascorbic acid for pDC functionality. This constitutes the first protocol for generating pDCs from whole blood, and lay the foundation for investigating HSPC-pDCs for cell-based immunotherapy.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
I-Na Lu ◽  
Celia Dobersalske ◽  
Laurèl Rauschenbach ◽  
Sarah Teuber-Hanselmann ◽  
Anita Steinbach ◽  
...  

AbstractBrain tumors are typically immunosuppressive and refractory to immunotherapies for reasons that remain poorly understood. The unbiased profiling of immune cell types in the tumor microenvironment may reveal immunologic networks affecting therapy and course of disease. Here we identify and validate the presence of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) within glioblastoma tissues. Furthermore, we demonstrate a positive link of tumor-associated HSPCs with malignant and immunosuppressive phenotypes. Compared to the medullary hematopoietic compartment, tumor-associated HSPCs contain a higher fraction of immunophenotypically and transcriptomically immature, CD38- cells, such as hematopoietic stem cells and multipotent progenitors, express genes related to glioblastoma progression and display signatures of active cell cycle phases. When cultured ex vivo, tumor-associated HSPCs form myeloid colonies, suggesting potential in situ myelopoiesis. In experimental models, HSPCs promote tumor cell proliferation, expression of the immune checkpoint PD-L1 and secretion of tumor promoting cytokines such as IL-6, IL-8 and CCL2, indicating concomitant support of both malignancy and immunosuppression. In patients, the amount of tumor-associated HSPCs in tumor tissues is prognostic for patient survival and correlates with immunosuppressive phenotypes. These findings identify an important element in the complex landscape of glioblastoma that may serve as a target for brain tumor immunotherapies.


Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 225
Author(s):  
James E. Norton Norton, Jr. ◽  
Sushma Kommineni ◽  
Patricia Akrivoulis ◽  
Dario A. Gutierrez ◽  
Daria J. Hazuda ◽  
...  

There is mounting evidence that the microbiome plays a critical role in training and maturation of the host immune system. Pre-clinical and clinical studies have shown that microbiome perturbation is correlated with sub-optimal host responses to vaccines and cancer immunotherapy. As such, identifying species of commensal bacteria capable of modulating immunological outcomes is of considerable interest. Currently, the lack of reliable primary immune cell-based assays capable of differentiating immuno-modulatory properties of various commensal bacteria is a major limitation. Here, we demonstrate that primary human monocyte-derived dendritic cells (MoDC) are capable of stratifying different strains of live and heat-killed commensal bacteria in an in vitro culture system. Specifically, heat-killed bacterial strains were able to differentially modulate co-stimulation/maturation markers CD80, CD83, and HLA-DR, as well as cytokine/chemokine signatures, such as IL-1b, MIP-1a, and TNFa in primary human MoDC. We further validated our observations using the TruCulture® (Myriad RBM, Inc., Austin, TX, USA) whole-blood ex vivo culture system. Using this ex vivo system allowed us to measure immune-altering effects of commensal bacteria in primary human whole-blood. As such, we report that both these primary in vitro and ex vivo systems are robust and enable identification, stratification, and differentiation of various commensal bacteria as potential modulators of host immunity.


Gene Therapy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Epah ◽  
Richard Schäfer

AbstractHematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is the therapeutic concept to cure the blood/immune system of patients suffering from malignancies, immunodeficiencies, red blood cell disorders, and inherited bone marrow failure syndromes. Yet, allogeneic HSCT bear considerable risks for the patient such as non-engraftment, or graft-versus host disease. Transplanting gene modified autologous HSCs is a promising approach not only for inherited blood/immune cell diseases, but also for the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. However, there is emerging evidence for substantial heterogeneity of HSCs in situ as well as ex vivo that is also observed after HSCT. Thus, HSC gene modification concepts are suggested to consider that different blood disorders affect specific hematopoietic cell types. We will discuss the relevance of HSC heterogeneity for the development and manufacture of gene therapies and in exemplary diseases with a specific emphasis on the key target HSC types myeloid-biased, lymphoid-biased, and balanced HSCs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 88 ◽  
pp. S40
Author(s):  
Paige Dausinas ◽  
Jacob Slack ◽  
Christopher Basile ◽  
Anish Karlapudi ◽  
Heather O'Leary

Blood ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 117 (23) ◽  
pp. 6083-6090 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Dahlberg ◽  
Colleen Delaney ◽  
Irwin D. Bernstein

AbstractDespite progress in our understanding of the growth factors that support the progressive maturation of the various cell lineages of the hematopoietic system, less is known about factors that govern the self-renewal of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), and our ability to expand human HSPC numbers ex vivo remains limited. Interest in stem cell expansion has been heightened by the increasing importance of HSCs in the treatment of both malignant and nonmalignant diseases, as well as their use in gene therapy. To date, most attempts to ex vivo expand HSPCs have used hematopoietic growth factors but have not achieved clinically relevant effects. More recent approaches, including our studies in which activation of the Notch signaling pathway has enabled a clinically relevant ex vivo expansion of HSPCs, have led to renewed interest in this arena. Here we briefly review early attempts at ex vivo expansion by cytokine stimulation followed by an examination of our studies investigating the role of Notch signaling in HSPC self-renewal. We will also review other recently developed approaches for ex vivo expansion, primarily focused on the more extensively studied cord blood–derived stem cell. Finally, we discuss some of the challenges still facing this field.


2005 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lubin Fang ◽  
Boris Fehse ◽  
Melanie Engel ◽  
Axel Zander ◽  
Nicolaus Kr??ger

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Marisa Vulcano ◽  
María Gabriela Lombardi ◽  
María Elena Sales

Besides being the main neurotransmitter in the parasympathetic nervous system, acetylcholine (ACh) can act as a signaling molecule in nonneuronal tissues. For this reason, ACh and the enzymes that synthesize and degrade it (choline acetyltransferase and acetylcholinesterase) as well as muscarinic (mAChRs) and nicotinic receptors conform the non-neuronal cholinergic system (nNCS). It has been reported that nNCS regulates basal cellular functions including survival, proliferation, adhesion, and migration. Moreover, nNCS is broadly expressed in tumors and in different components of the immune system. In this review, we summarize the role of nNCS in tumors and in different immune cell types focusing on the expression and function of mAChRs in breast tumors and dendritic cells (DCs) and discussing the role of DCs in breast cancer.


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