Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-12-2024

Keywords

JMG, Animals, Humans, Mice, T-Lymphocytes, Immune Reconstitution, Mice, Inbred NOD, Mice, SCID, Major Histocompatibility Complex, Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation, Mice, Knockout, Hematopoietic Stem Cells, Hematopoiesis, Transcriptome

JAX Source

Cells. 2024;13(20):1686.

ISSN

2073-4409

PMID

39451205

DOI

https://doi.org/10.3390/cells13201686

Grant

This work was supported by The Jackson Laboratory (Grant LV-HLA) as an academic collaboration contracted grant (to R.S.).the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF-5-COE-2020-967-M-N-02) (to L.S.).

Abstract

Background: Humanized mice transplanted with CD34+ hematopoietic cells (HPCs) are broadly used to study human immune responses and infections in vivo and for testing therapies pre-clinically. However, until now, it was not clear whether interactions between the mouse major histocompatibility complexes (MHCs) and/or the human leukocyte antigens (HLAs) were necessary for human T-cell development and immune reactivity. Methods: We evaluated the long-term (20- week) human hematopoiesis and human T-cell development in NOD Scid Gamma (NSG) mice lacking the expression of MHC class I and II (NSG-DKO). Triplicate experiments were performed with HPCs obtained from three donors, and humanization was confirmed in the reference strain NOD Rag Gamma (NRG). Further, we tested whether humanized NSG-DKO mice would respond to a lentiviral vector (LV) systemic delivery of HLA-A*02:01, HLA-DRB1*04:01, human GM-CSF/IFN-α, and the human cytomegalovirus gB antigen. Results: Human immune reconstitution was detectable in peripheral blood from 8 to 20 weeks after the transplantation of NSG-DKO. Human single positive CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells were detectable in lymphatic tissues (thymus, bone marrow, and spleen). LV delivery harnessed the detection of lymphocyte subsets in bone marrow (αβ and γδ T-cells and NK cells) and the expression of HLA-DR. Furthermore, RNA sequencing showed that LV delivery increased the expression of different human reactome pathways, such as defense responses to other organisms and viruses. Conclusions: Human T-cell development and reactivity are independent of the expression of murine MHCs in humanized mice. Therefore, humanized NSG-DKO is a promising new model for studying human immune responses, as it abrogates the xenograft mouse MHC interference.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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