Blood, 15 January 2002, Vol. 99, No. 2, pp. 719-721
BRIEF REPORT
Human hematopoiesis in murine embryos after injecting human cord
blood-derived hematopoietic stem cells into murine
blastocysts
Friedrich Harder,
Reinhard Henschler,
Ilse Junghahn,
Marinus C. Lamers, and
Albrecht M. Müller
From the Max-Planck-Institut für Immunbiologie,
Freiburg, Germany; Institut für Medizinische Strahlenkunde und
Zellforschung (MSZ), Universität Würzburg, Germany;
Institut für Transfusionsmedizin und Immunhämatologie,
Frankfurt, Germany; and the Max-Delbrück-Centrum für
Molekulare Medizin, Berlin, Germany.
At different developmental stages, candidate human
hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are present within the
CD34+ CD38
population. By means of
xenotransplantation, such CD34+CD38 cells
were recently shown to engraft the hematopoietic system of fetal sheep
and nonobese diabetic severe combined immunodeficient adult
mice. Here it is demonstrated that, after their injection into
murine blastocysts, human cord blood (CB)-derived CD34+
and CD34+ CD38 cells repopulate the
hematopoietic tissues of nonimmunocompromised murine embryos and that
human donor contribution can persist to adulthood. It is further
observed that human hematopoietic progenitor cells are present in
murine hematopoietic tissues of midgestational chimeric embryos and
that progeny of the injected human HSCs activate erythroid-specific
gene expression. Thus, the early murine embryo provides a suitable
environment for the survival and differentiation of human CB
CD34+ CD38 cells.
