Immune humanization of immunodeficient mice using diagnostic bone marrow aspirates from carcinoma patients

PLoS One. 2014 May 15;9(5):e97860. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0097860. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Tumor xenografts in immunodeficient mice, while routinely used in cancer research, preclude studying interactions of immune and cancer cells or, if humanized by allogeneic immune cells, are of limited use for tumor-immunological questions. Here, we explore a novel way to generate cancer models with an autologous humanized immune system. We demonstrate that hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) from bone marrow aspirates of non-metastasized carcinoma patients, which are taken at specialized centers for diagnostic purposes, can be used to generate a human immune system in NOD-scid IL2rγ(null) (NSG) and HLA-I expressing NSG mice (NSG-HLA-A2/HHD) comprising both, lymphoid and myeloid cell lineages. Using NSG-HLA-A2/HHD mice, we show that responsive and self-tolerant human T cells develop and human antigen presenting cells can activate human T cells. As critical factors we identified the low potential of bone marrow HSPCs to engraft, generally low HSPC numbers in patient-derived bone marrow samples, cryopreservation and routes of cell administration. We provide here an optimized protocol that uses a minimum number of HSPCs, preselects high-quality bone marrow samples defined by the number of initially isolated leukocytes and intra-femoral or intra-venous injection. In conclusion, the use of diagnostic bone marrow aspirates from non-metastasized carcinoma patients for the immunological humanization of immunodeficient mice is feasible and opens the chance for individualized analyses of anti-tumoral T cell responses.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antigens, CD34 / metabolism
  • Bone Marrow / immunology
  • Bone Marrow / pathology
  • Breast Neoplasms / immunology
  • Breast Neoplasms / pathology
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Esophageal Neoplasms / immunology
  • Esophageal Neoplasms / pathology
  • Female
  • Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation*
  • Hematopoietic Stem Cells / immunology
  • Hematopoietic Stem Cells / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Lung Neoplasms / immunology
  • Lung Neoplasms / pathology
  • Male
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Mice, Inbred NOD
  • Mice, SCID
  • Prostatic Neoplasms / immunology
  • Prostatic Neoplasms / pathology

Substances

  • Antigens, CD34

Grants and funding

The work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (WE 4632/1-1 to MWK) and the Dr. Josef Steiner cancer foundation (to CAK). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.