Stem Cells 2004;22:1128-1133
www.StemCells.com
© 2004 AlphaMed Press
CXCR4-Transgene Expression Significantly Improves Marrow Engraftment of Cultured Hematopoietic Stem Cells
Sebastian Brennera,b,
Narda Whiting-Theobalda,
Toshinao Kawaia,c,
Gilda F. Lintona,
Andrew G. Rudikoffa,
Uimook Choia,
Martin F. Ryserb,
Philip M. Murphya,
Joan M.G. Sechlera,
Harry L. Malecha
a Laboratory of Host Defenses, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA;
b Department of Pediatrics, University Clinic Carl Gustav Carus, Dresden, Germany;
c Department of Pediatrics, The Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
Key Words. Engraftment • CXCR4 • Ex vivo gene transfer • Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs)
Correspondence: Sebastian Brenner, M.D., Department of Pediatrics, University Clinic Carl Gustav Carus, Fetscherstr. 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany. Telephone: 49-351-458-6872; Fax: 49-351-458-6333; e-mail: Sebastian.Brenner{at}uniklinikum-dresden.de
 |
ABSTRACT
|
|---|
Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) lose marrow reconstitution potential during ex vivo culture. HSC migration to stromal cell–derived factor (SDF)-1 (CXCL12) correlates with CXC chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) expression and marrow engraftment. We demonstrate that mobilized human CD34+ peripheral blood stem cells (CD34+ PBSCs) lose CXCR4 expression during prolonged culture. We transduced CD34+ PBSCs with retrovirus vector encoding human CXCR4 and achieved 18-fold more CXCR4 expression in over 87% of CD34+ cells. CXCR4-transduced cells yielded increased calcium flux and up to a 10-fold increase in migration to SDF-1. Six-day cultured CXCR4-transduced cells demonstrated significant engraftment in nonobese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficient mice under conditions in which control transduced cells resulted in low or no engraftment. We conclude that transduction-mediated overexpression of CXCR4 significantly improves marrow engraftment of cultured PBSCs.
|
INTRODUCTION
|
|---|
Hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) egress to the circulation and homing to the bone marrow (BM) are regulated in part by interactions between CXC chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) and stromal cell–derived factor (SDF)-1 [1, 2]. Mobilization of CD34+ peripheral blood stem cells (CD34+ PBSCs) from BM occurs following administration of either granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF; inactivation of SDF-1 and cleavage of CXCR4) or AMD3100 (partial agonist of CXCR4) [3–5]. SDF-1 binding to CXCR4 on HSCs mediates chemotaxis, expression of adhesion molecules, proliferation, and survival [6–8].
Experimental approaches under development for transplantation or gene therapy with HSCs may involve ex vivo manipulation that decreases available HSCs or affects BM homing and engraftment. The level of CXCR4 expression on CD34+ HSCs decreases during prolonged ex vivo culture [9]. Ex vivo cultured human HSCs progressively lose nonobese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficient (NOD/ SCID) mouse reconstitution potential that is improved by SDF-1 treatment [10]. In the clinic, donor CD34+ HSCs that express higher levels of CXCR4 are statistically correlated with earlier reconstitution of hematopoiesis after transplantation [11]. All these observations suggest that loss of CXCR4 expression on CD34+ HSCs during culture might precede other processes that diminish the potential to participate in long-term hematopoiesis. In the study reported here we show that transduction-mediated overexpression of CXCR4 during culture of G-CSF–mobilized CD34+ PBSCs significantly improves BM repopulating potential over that of similarly cultured normal PBSCs, as measured by transplantation into sublethally irradiated NOD/SCID mice.
|
STUDY DESIGN
|
|---|
Collection of Normal CD34+ PBSCs
CD34+ PBSCs from five healthy donors were used. After informed consent following International Review Board–approved clinical protocol 94-I-0073 of the National Institutes of Health, the normal volunteers were administered 10 µg/kg/day G-CSF, apheresed on the fifth day, and CD34+ cells selected from each apheresis product by immunomagnetic beads (Isolex 300i, Baxter Healthcare, Deerfield, IL, http://www.baxter.com). The purity of CD34+ PBSCs after selection was >94%. Vials of CD34+ PBSCs were stored in liquid nitrogen and freshly thawed for each experiment.
Generation of MFGS Vector Encoding Human CXCR4 and gp91phox
To generate murine onco-retrovirus MFGS-CXCR4 and MFGS-gp91phox vector, open reading frames of human CXCR4 and human gp91phox cDNA, respectively, were inserted directionally into the NcoI-BamHI cloning site of the MFGS vector. For each vector, a high-titer FLYRD18 producer clone was generated, and virus supernatant was collected as previously described [12].
Transduction of CD34+ PBSCs
CD34+ PBSC cultures were initiated in Retronectin (Takara Shuzo Ltd., Otsu, Japan, http://www.takara-bio.co.jp/english) pre-coated six-well plates in growth medium (X-VIV0 10/1% human serum albumin; 50 ng/ml fms-like tyro-sine kinase 3 (FLT3) ligand, 10 ng/ml stem cell factor, 10 ng/ml thrombopoietin, 10 ng/ml interleukin-3). CD34+ PBSCs were transduced overnight four times (days 2, 3, 4, and 5) using dilutions of concentrated virus vector equivalent to 1 x 107 infectious units and 5 µg/ml protamine. Naive non-transduced or gp91phox-transduced cultured CD34+ PBSCs served as negative controls for CXCR4 expression.
Calcium Flux Response and Transwell MigrationAssay
CD34+ PBSCs were loaded in Hank’s Balanced Salt Solution (HBSS) supplemented with 20 mM HEPES (N-2-hydroxyethylpiperazine-N’-2-ethanesulfonic acid) with 2 µ1 of a 1:1 mixture of 1 µg/µ1 Fura-2 AM and 20% Pluronic F-127 (Molecular Probes, Eugene, OR, http://www.probes.com); then they were incubated, washed, and pipetted into a well of a poly-L-lysine (Sigma Chemical Corp., St. Louis, http://www.sigma-aldrich.com) coated 96-well plate (Greiner Bio-One, Longwood, FL, http://www.gbo.com/bioscience). The plate was loaded into a Flexstation (Molecular Devices, Sunnyvale, CA, http://www.moleculardevices.com) set at 37°C. Stimuli in HBSS/20mM HEPES/1% bovine serum albumin (Sigma), were robotically added; using excitation at 340 and 380 nm, the fluorescence intensities were detected at 510 nm. Data are expressed as change in relative fluorescence calculated as the ratio of the two intensities (SoftmaxPro Software, Molecular Devices).
For the transwell migration assay, 0.5 x 106 of cultured CD34+ cells were added in 0.1 ml growth medium to the upper chamber of a 5-µm polycarbonate transwell (Corning Costar Corporation, Cambridge, MA,http://www.corning.com). The bottom chamber contained 0.6 ml of growth medium with or without 10 nM SDF-1. After 30 minutes incubation, migrated cells in the bottom chamber were collected with two to three washes and counted three times. All runs were performed in duplicate.
Transplantation of CD34+ PBSCs into NOD/SCID Mice and Harvest of Bone Marrow
Ten x 106 normal and 10 x 106 MFGS-CXCR4–transduced 6-day cultured PBSCs (equivalent to 4 x 106 CD34+ PBSCs at initiation of culture) were injected via tail vein into eight and 10 sublethally irradiated NOD/SCID mice, respectively. Mice were 8–10 weeks old at day of transplantation. In a separate experiment, 6-day cultured human MFGS-CXCR4 and MFGS-gp91phox control-transduced PBSCs (4.5 x 106 MFGS-CXCR4–transduced cells per mouse and 5 x 106 MFGS-gp91phox–transduced cells per mouse; both equivalent to 1 x 106 cells at initiation of culture) were injected via tail vein into three and two sublethally irradiated (312 Rads) 13-week-old NOD/SCID mice (Jackson ImmunoResearch Laboratories, West Grove, PA, http://www.jax.org), respectively. For each experiment, an aliquot of cells was retained in ex vivo liquid culture. To analyze BM engraftment, mice were sacrificed 6 or 9 weeks post-transplant, and BM from tibias and femurs was flushed into X-VIV0 10/1% human serum albumin.
Analysis of Transgene Expression and Human Cell Engraftment by Flow Cytometry
Human CXCR4 expression was determined by anti-human fluorochrome-conjugated monoclonal antibody staining (CXCR4-CyChrome or CXCR4-PE; clone 12G5; BD Biosciences Pharmingen, San Diego, http://www.bdbiosciences.com) after permeabilization of the cell membrane to detect both surface and intracellular CXCR4. Human gp91phox expression was determined by indirect staining with murine monoclonal antibody 7D5 followed by fluorescein isothiocyanate–conjugated goat anti-mouse immunoglobulin G antibody. Anti-human fluorochrome-conjugated monoclonal antibodies were used to identify human hematopoietic cells (CD45-PerCP or CD45-APC, CD34-PE; BD Biosciences Pharmingen).
Statistics
Results are reported as mean ± standard error. Differences of cell populations were analyzed using a one tailed Student’s t-test.
|
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
|
|---|
We first investigated the expression of CD34 and CXCR4 on G-CSF–mobilized normal CD34+ PBSCs in ex vivo culture. We found that during prolonged culture, CD34 expression is progressively lost on PBSCs, such that by day 6, only 10%–38% (n = 4) of cells remained CD34+. Initial CXCR4 expression on CD34+ PBSCs varied depending on the donor (20%–52%, n = 4) and was upregulated during the first 48 hours by cytokine stimulation, as was reported before [1, 2]. During prolonged culture, however, CXCR4 expression was progressively lost on cells that remained CD34+ such that by day 6, only 1.1%–8% continued to coexpress CXCR4 (Fig. 1
). Based on the loss of CXCR4 expression on CD34+ cells under prolonged culture conditions, we overexpressed the CXCR4 transgene in CD34+ cells.
View larger version (38K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]
|
Figure 1. Flow cytometric analysis demonstrates the change in expression of CXCR4 by CD34+ PBSCs during ex vivo culture. (A): Twenty percent of CD34+PBSCs express CXCR4 on day 0 (cross lines set at 99th percentile of isotype antibody controls, right column). (B): At 6 days of culture only 8% of those cells continuing to express CD34 also express CXCR4. (C): In contrast, 87.2% of CD34+ cells transduced with RD114-MFGS-CXCR4 on days 2–6 of culture express CXCR4 transgene on day 6. Abbreviation: PBSC, peripheral blood stem cell.
|
|
Cultured CD34+ PBSCs transduced overnight on days 2–6 with murine retrovirus vector RD114-pseudotyped MFGS-CXCR4, expressed high levels of CXCR4 (Fig. 1
). Either normal (nontransduced) CD34+ PBSCs or RD114-MFGS-gp91phox (phagocyte oxidase transmembrane subunit)–transduced CD34+ PBSCs were used as control (92% of cells transduced; not shown). CXCR4 transgene–positive hematopoietic progenitor cells expressed 11- to 18-fold more CXCR4 per cell (measured by mean fluorescence intensity) than normal or control-transduced cells (n = 5). CXCR4-transduced hematopoietic progenitors (five independent tests with CD34+ PBSCs from five different donors) sampled on culture day 6 demonstrated increased calcium flux SDF-1 response that was 160%–220% of naive cultured CD34+ PBSCs (Fig. 2, inset). Respective CXCR4-transduced PBSC migration over 30 minutes on day 6 in response to SDF-1 was on average 3.4-fold greater than migration of cultured control cell migration in response to SDF-1 (Fig. 2). These ex vivo results suggest CXCR4 transgene–enhanced migration and calcium-flux response to SDF-1. Since cells were not split into CD34+ and CD34– populations for the calcium flux and migration assays, it should be noted that upregulated naive CXCR4 on more differentiated cells in culture might have influenced the results.
View larger version (23K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]
|
Figure 2. Enhanced ionized intracellular calcium flux and cellular migration of CXCR4-transduced CD34+ PBSCs in response to SDF-1. The inset shows one representative run of the fura2-AM response (fluorescence emission ratio at 510 nm of 340 nm versus 380 nm excitation) of control-cultured (open diamonds) and CXCR4-transduced PBSCs (dark-filled circles) to sequential stimulation with buffer, 10 nM SDF-1, and 10 nM ATP. The bar graph shows the number of CXCR4-transduced PBSCs that migrated through 5 µm polycarbonate transwells within 30 minutes (open bar in response to buffer; dark-filled bar in response to 10 nM SDF-1). The middle light cross-hatched bar shows the migration response of control-cultured PBSCs to 10 nM SDF-1. Given are mean values and standard errors of five separate runs with PBSCs from five different donors. Abbreviations: PBSC, peripheral blood stem cell; SDF-1, stromal cell–derived factor-1.
|
|
In a NOD/SCID mouse study, we compared repopulation potential of CXCR4-transduced or normal (nontransduced) cells at day 6 of culture, in which each mouse was transplanted with the progeny from 4 x 106 CD34+ PBSCs seeded at culture initiation. At the day of transplantation, the CXCR4-transduced CD34+ cells expressed CXCR4 in >87%, compared with 8% naive CXCR4 expression in the normal (non-transduced) CD34+ population (Fig. 1; Table 1, column 5). After 6 weeks, BM of 10 mice transplanted with the CXCR4-transduced 6-day cultured CD34+ PBSCs demonstrated 19.9% ± 3.4% engraftment of human CD45+ cells, while BM of eight mice transplanted with the normal 6-day cultured CD34+ PBSCs demonstrated significantly lower (p < .01) engraftment (9.3% ± 1.3%; Fig. 3; Table 1, column 8).
View larger version (20K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]
|
Figure 3. Significantly higher human cell engraftment for MFGS-CXCR4–transduced PBSCs in nonobese diabetic/ severe combined immunodeficient mice. At 6 weeks after transplantation, human cell engraftment (measured by anti-human CD45) was 19.9% ± 3.4% for 6-day cultured MFGS-CXCR4–transduced PBSCs (dark filled bar) compared with 9.3% ± 1.3% engraftment for similarly cultured nontransduced (normal) PBSCs (hatched bar) from the same donor (see Table 1). Abbreviation: PBSC, peripheral blood stem cell.
|
|
We previously reported accelerated loss of the NOD/ SCID mouse marrow repopulating potential of human CD34+ PBSCs between the 4th and 6th days of ex vivo culture [12]. With CD34+ PBSCs from a different healthy volunteer, we compared NOD/SCID repopulation potential of CXCR4 and gp91phox control-transduced cells at day 6 of culture, in which each mouse was transplanted with the progeny from only 1 x 106 CD34+ PBSCs seeded at culture initiation. Under similar conditions, no engraftment of normal CD34+ PBSCs was seen in NOD/SCID mice in previous experiments (unpublished data). At the day of transplantation, the CXCR4-transduced PBSCs expressed CXCR4 in 95%, compared with <2% expression of naive CXCR4 in the control-transduced cell population. After 9 weeks, BM of the three mice transplanted with CXCR4-transduced hematopoietic progenitors demonstrated 0.65% ± 0.1% engraftment of human CD45+ cells, while no engraftment—as expected—was detected in the two mice transplanted with gp91phox control-transduced cells (Fig. 4 A,B; Table 1, column 8). Furthermore, all CD45+ human cells from NOD/SCID chimeric BM in the CXCR4-transduced group coexpressed high levels of CXCR4 transgene (Fig. 4C, D), which is characteristic of CXCR4-transduced cells ex vivo.
View larger version (68K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]
|
Figure 4. Enhanced NOD/SCID engraftment potential of 6-day cultured CXCR4-transduced CD34+ PBSCs. (A) and (C) shows a representative flow cytometry analysis of bone marrow harvested at 9 weeks after transplantation of a NOD/SCID mouse with 6-day cultured control-transduced CD34+ PBSCs demonstrating no engraftment, while (B) and (D) show similar analyses of mice transplanted with CXCR4-transduced PBSCs, demonstrating significant engraftment of human CD45+ cells, of which most also express high levels of CXCR4 transgene (D, upper right quadrant). Abbreviations: NOD/SCID, nonobese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficient; PBSC, peripheral blood stem cell.
|
|
The studies demonstrate that, under the prolonged ex vivo culture conditions, the CXCR4 transduction of CD34+ PBSCs results in significantly improved long-term NOD/ SCID engraftment conferred by transduction-mediated forced overexpression of CXCR4, and this is consistent with recently published data by Kahn et al. [13]. Our results indicate that loss of marrow reconstitution potential of cultured HSCs not only is due to differentiation (and thus loss of self-renewal potential) but also may be preceded by loss of CXCR4 expression crucial for homing. This represents direct evidence that CXCR4 mediates HSC homing and engraftment to the BM, and it provides incentive for development of clinically applicable methods for increasing levels of expression of CXCR4 to enhance engraftment of ex vivo manipulated HSCs.
|
REFERENCES
|
|---|
- Abkowitz JL, Robinson AE, Kale S et al. The mobilization of hematopoietic stem cells during homeostasis and after cytokine exposure. Blood 2003;102:1249–1253.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Peled A, Petit I, Kollet O et al. Dependence of human stem cell engraftment and repopulation of NOD/SCID mice on CXCR4. Science 1999;283:845–848.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Petit I, Szyper-Kravitz M, Nagler A et al. G-CSF induces stem cell mobilization by decreasing bone marrow SDF-1 and up-regulating CXCR4. Nat Immunol 2002;3:687–694.[CrossRef][Medline]
- Levesque JP, Hendy J, Takamatsu Y et al. Disruption of the CXCR4/CXCL12 chemotactic interaction during hematopoietic stem cell mobilization induced by GCSF or cyclophosphamide. J Clin Invest 2003;111:187–196.[CrossRef][Medline]
- Liles WC, Broxmeyer HE, Rodger E et al. Mobilization of hematopoietic progenitor cells in healthy volunteers by AMD3100, a CXCR4 antagonist. Blood 2003;102:2728–2730.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Broxmeyer HE, Cooper S, Kohli L et al. Transgenic expression of stromal cell-derived factor-1/CXC chemokine lig-and 12 enhances myeloid progenitor cell survival/antiapoptosis in vitro in response to growth factor withdrawal and enhances myelopoiesis in vivo. J Immunol 2003;170: 421–429.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Lataillade JJ, Clay D, Dupuy C et al. Chemokine SDF-1 enhances circulating CD34(+) cell proliferation in synergy with cytokines: possible role in progenitor survival. Blood 2000;95:756–768.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Peled A, Kollet O, Ponomaryov T et al. The chemokine SDF-1 activates the integrins LFA-1, VLA-4, and VLA-5 on immature human CD34(+) cells: role in transendothelial/ stromal migration and engraftment of NOD/SCID mice. Blood 2000;95:3289–3296.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Denning-Kendall P, Singha S, Bradley B et al. Cytokine expansion culture of cord blood CD34(+) cells induces marked and sustained changes in adhesion receptor and CXCR4 expressions. STEM CELLS 2003;21:61–70.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Glimm H, Tang P, Clark-Lewis I et al. Ex vivo treatment of proliferating human cord blood stem cells with stroma-derived factor-1 enhances their ability to engraft NOD/SCID mice. Blood 2002;99:3454–3457.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Spencer A, Jackson J, Baulch-Brown C. Enumeration of bone marrow "homing" haemopoietic stem cells from G-CSF-mobilised normal donors and influence on engraftment following allogeneic transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant 2001;28:1019–1022.[CrossRef][Medline]
- Brenner S, Whiting-Theobald NL, Linton GF et al. Concentrated RD114-pseudotyped MFGS-gp91phox vector achieves high levels of functional correction of the chronic granulomatous disease oxidase defect in NOD/SCID/beta-microglobulin–/– repopulating mobilized human peripheral blood CD34+ cells. Blood 2003;102:2789–2797.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Kahn J, Byk T, Jansson-Sjostrand L et al. Overexpression of CXCR4 on human CD34+ progenitors increases their proliferation, migration, and NOD/SCID repopulation. Blood 2004;103:2942–2949.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
Received December 28, 2003;
accepted for publication August 4, 2004.
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
|
|
 
T. Kawai, U. Choi, L. Cardwell, S. S. DeRavin, N. Naumann, N. L. Whiting-Theobald, G. F. Linton, J. Moon, P. M. Murphy, and H. L. Malech
WHIM syndrome myelokathexis reproduced in the NOD/SCID mouse xenotransplant model engrafted with healthy human stem cells transduced with C-terminus-truncated CXCR4
Blood,
January 1, 2007;
109(1):
78 - 84.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
O. M. Pello, M. del Carmen Moreno-Ortiz, J. M. Rodriguez-Frade, L. Martinez-Munoz, D. Lucas, L. Gomez, P. Lucas, E. Samper, M. Aracil, C. Martinez-A, et al.
SOCS up-regulation mobilizes autologous stem cells through CXCR4 blockade
Blood,
December 1, 2006;
108(12):
3928 - 3937.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
T. Lapidot, A. Dar, and O. Kollet
How do stem cells find their way home?
Blood,
September 15, 2005;
106(6):
1901 - 1910.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
|
|
Top
Abstract
Introduction
