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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Rights and Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Verhasselt, B. Articles by Plum, J. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Verhasselt, B. Articles by Plum, J. Related Collections Plenary Papers Social Bookmarking                   What's this?  Previous Article  |  Table of Contents  |  Next Article  Blood, Vol. 94 No. 11 (December 1), 1999: pp. 3644-3652 Thymic Repopulation by CD34+ Human Cord Blood Cells After Expansion in Stroma-Free Culture Bruno Verhasselt, Tessa Kerre, Evelien Naessens, Dominique Vanhecke, Magda De Smedt, Bart Vandekerckhove, and Jean Plum From the Department of Clinical Chemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ghent, University Hospital of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium; and the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology, Ghent, Belgium (Vlaams Interuniversitair Instituut voor Biotechnologie, VIB). Thymic repopulation by transplanted hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC) is likely to be important for long-term immune reconstitution and for successful gene therapy of diseases affecting the T-cell lineage. However, the T-cell progenitor potential of HPC, cultured in vitro for cell number expansion and gene transfer remains largely unknown. Here, we cultured highly purified human umbilical cord blood (CB) CD34+CD38 or CD34+CD38+ cells for up to 5 weeks in stroma-free cultures supplemented with various combinations of the cytokines thrombopoietin (TPO), stem cell factor (SCF), flt3/flk-2 ligand (FL), interleukin-3 (IL-3), and IL-6 and investigated thymus-repopulating ability of expanded cells in vitro and in vivo. After up to 5 weeks of culture in IL-3 + SCF + IL-6 or TPO + FL + SCF supplemented medium, the progeny of CD34+CD38 CB cells generated T cells and natural killer cells in the thymus. Limiting dilution experiments demonstrated increase in the number of T-cell progenitors during culture. After 3 weeks of culture, gene marked CD34+CD38 CB cells injected in the human thymus fragment transplanted in severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice (SCID-hu) generated thymocytes expressing the retroviral encoded marker gene GFP in vivo. Thus, our results show that the progeny of CD34+CD38 CB cells cultured for extensive periods, harbor thymus-repopulating cells that retain T-cell progenitor potential after expansion and gene transfer. CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this? This article has been cited by other articles: T. C. C. Kerre, G. De Smet, M. De Smedt, F. Offner, J. De Bosscher, J. Plum, and B. Vandekerckhove Both CD34+38+ and CD34+38- Cells Home Specifically to the Bone Marrow of NOD/LtSZ scid/scid Mice but Show Different Kinetics in Expansion J. Immunol., October 1, 2001; 167(7): 3692 - 3698. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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