Search

Objective To optimize transduction efficiency of mobilized CD34 + cells with serotype-5 adenoviruses (Ad5s), we investigated the activity of the chemical cocktail BoosterExpress Reagent in enhancing Ad5-mediated gene transfer into CD34 + cells. Methods Enriched CD34 + cells were transduced with three different Ad5s at increasing multiplicity of infections (MOIs) in the presence and absence of BoosterExpress Reagent. Percentages of transduced cells and levels of transgene expression were quantified by flow cytometry. Propidium iodide staining and colony growth were used to assess the toxicity of the transduction protocol. Expression of adenovirus receptors was investigated by flow cytometry. Results Irrespective of the Ad5 used, transduction with BoosterExpress Reagent using an MOI of 500 resulted in an average six- to seven-fold increase of transduction efficiencies and 1.5- to 2-fold increase of the levels of transgene expression, which could be detected up to 7 days post-transduction. Although BoosterExpress Reagent alone did not affect the plating efficiency of CD34 + cells, adenovector transduction plus BoosterExpress Reagent significantly reduced the plating efficiency due to the marked increase of transduced cells. However, adenoviral transduction in the presence of BoosterExpress Reagent failed to significantly reduce the recovery of CD34 + cells as compared with transduction in the absence of the compound. Coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor as well as α v β 3 , α v β 5 , α 5 , and β 1 integrins were upregulated by BoosterExpress Reagent. Conclusions BoosterExpress Reagent allows high-levels of durable transgene expression, thus making CD34 + cells a suitable target for Ad5-mediated gene transfer.

Objective To explore new treatments specifically targeting malignant plasma cells (PCs), we examined CD52 antigen expression on primary PCs as well as multiple myeloma (MM) cell lines, and investigated in vivo the antimyeloma activity of alemtuzumab. Materials and Methods PCs were enriched from the marrow of MM patients (n = 39) according to CD138 expression and then analyzed by 3-color flow cytometry and quantitative PCR. The in vivo activity of alemtuzumab was evaluated in a xenotransplant model of MM in nonobese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficient (NOD/SCID) mice. Results CD52 expression revealed a substantial heterogeneity in terms of both percentage of positive cells and fluorescence intensity, with 25/39 (64%) MM patients showing ≥30% CD138+ PCs expressing the CD52 antigen (mean = 79%; range, 33–100%). Similarly to primary cells, cell lines showed heterogeneous CD52 expression. Expression of CD52 mRNA by quantitative PCR analysis strongly correlated with CD52 antigen detection by flow cytometry. In vivo, alemtuzumab treatment significantly increased the median survival of animals with an early- (64 vs 77 days, p ≤ 0.0005) or advanced-stage (66 vs 75 days, p ≤ 0.02) disease. Conclusion We conclude that: 1) CD52 is expressed on PCs of a significant proportion of MM patients; 2) alemtuzumab used as a single agent exerts a good antitumor activity in NOD/SCID mice bearing an early-stage disease; and 3) alemtuzumab might have therapeutic potential in a subset of MM patients.

Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the capacity of defibrotide in enhancing cytokine-induced hematopoietic mobilization in rhesus monkeys. Materials and methods Animals received recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rhG-CSF, 100 μg/kg/day SC for 5 days) and, after a 4- to 6-week washout period, were remobilized with defibrotide (15 mg/kg/hour continuous intravenous for 5 days) plus rhG-CSF. Hematopoietic mobilization was evaluated by complete blood counts, differential counts, as well as frequency and absolute numbers of colony-forming cells (CFCs), high-proliferative potential CFCs (HPP-CFCs), and long-term culture-initiating cells (LTC-ICs). Results Compared to baseline values, rhG-CSF increased circulating CFCs, HPP-CFCs, and LTC-ICs by 158-, 125-, and 67-fold, respectively; the same figures for defibrotide/rhG-CSF were 299-, 1452-, and 295-fold, respectively. Defibrotide/rhG-CSF treatment compared to rhG-CSF alone increased CFCs, HPP-CFCs, and LTC-ICs by 1.4- (35,089 vs 25,825, p ≤0.02), 6- (4358 vs 748, p ≤0.02), and 5-fold (884 vs 168, p ≤0.04), respectively. We then evaluated the effects of a 2-day defibrotide treatment associated with a 5-day rhG-CSF treatment. Compared to rhG-CSF, defibrotide/rhG-CSF increased the mobilization of CFCs, HPP-CFCs, and LTC-ICs by 2- (31,128 vs 15,527, p ≤0.05), 8- (5361 vs 660, p ≤0.01), and 8-fold (954 vs 119, p ≤0.01), respectively. Conclusions Our data demonstrate that in nonhuman primates: 1) defibrotide enhances rhG-CSF–elicited mobilization of primitive and committed progenitors; and 2) a 2-day defibrotide injection is as effective as a 5-day injection.

Objective The aim of this story was to evaluate the activity of recombinant human (rh) growth hormone (GH) in restoring bone marrow progenitor cell growth as well as cytokine-elicited stem cell mobilization in aged BALB/c mice with impaired marrow hematopoietic function and reduced stem cell mobilizing capacity. Materials and Methods BALB/c mice included in this study were either naturally aged (group I) or aged after having been used for radioprotective assays (group II). Mice were treated for 5 weeks with either rhGH [2.5 mg/kg/day intraperitoneally (IP)] or phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). Subsequently, colony-forming cells (CFCs) and long-term culture-initiating cells (LTC-ICs) were evaluated. In addition, progenitor cell mobilization elicited by granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rhG-CSF) was analyzed. Results Compared with young controls, the growth of marrow CFCs and LTC-ICs was significantly reduced ( P ≤0.05) in group I and II mice. Treatment with rhGH significantly enhanced marrow hematopoiesis in mice of both groups, as demonstrated by a complete restoration of marrow cellularity, and CFC and LTC-IC growth. To further evaluate the hematopoietic potential of rhGH, aged mice treated with rhGH or PBS were mobilized with rhG-CSF (10 μg/day IP for 5 days). Compared with PBS-injected mice, rhGH-treated mice showed a significant improvement of rhG/CSF–elicited stem cell mobilization, with significant increases of white blood cell counts (5633 vs 8133, P ≤0.05), frequency of circulating CFCs per 10 5 mononuclear cells (36 vs 67, P ≤0.009), as well as absolute numbers per mL of blood of circulating CFCs (783 vs 2288, P ≤0.001) and LTC-IC (21 vs 64, P ≤0.001). Conclusion Our data demonstrate in mice that a 5-week treatment with rhGH restores age- and irradiation-associated loss of marrow primitive and committed progenitors.

In utero transplantation of preimmune fetal sheep with human hematopoietic stem cells results in stable long-term hematopoietic chimerism. To clarify the mechanisms of support of human stem cells in chimeric sheep, we established stromas from bone marrow of 30 sheep transplanted in utero with human hematopoietic stem cells from adult bone marrow adult peripheral blood, or fetal liver. We examined the stromas for the presence or absence of human stromal elements in vitro. Human stromal elements were detected in 12 sheep as assessed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using human HLA-DQalpha-specific primers. The human origin of the PCR product was confirmed by Southern blotting using an HLA-DQalpha-specific probe. However, none of these stromal cells were positive for CD45 or CD14 as determined by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis or by message expression using reverse transcriptase (RT)-PCR. In an attempt to further characterize these cells fibroblasts were isolated by panning, and DNA analysis confirmed the human origin of these cells in the same lambs. Of the fetuses injected with the highly enriched cells from adult human bone marrow 36% were found to harbor cells capable of forming human stromal elements in vitro in their marrow. Of those injected with human fetal liver and peripheral blood stem cells, 42 and 40%, respectively, exhibited in vitro human stromal cell-forming ability. These results indicate the long-term persistence of cells capable of giving rise to components of human marrow stroma in vitro in the human/sheep xenograft model.

We report that blood cell autografts, collected by single leukapheresis in cancer patients (n = 11) at the time of mobilization of hematopoietic progenitors into peripheral blood following anticancer therapy with high-dose cyclophosphamide (HD-CTX) plus interleukin-3 (IL-3) and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF/filgrastim), comprise 1.98 +/- 0.39 x 10(5)/kg (mean +/- SE) CD34+ progenitors of dendritic cells (DCs). This number corresponds to 140-fold more progenitors than in a control autograft collected in the steady state. DCs derived from mobilized CD34+ cells, morphologically and immunophenotypically undistinguishable from skin Langerhans cells and DCs from bone marrow and cord blood CD34+ cells, are shown to be powerful stimulators of allogeneic T cell proliferation in primary MLR and of autologous HLA-DR-restricted CD4+ T cell proliferation in response to presentation of xenogenic antigens. We show that the GM-CSF-plus-TNF-alpha-dependent ex vivo generation of DCs from mobilized CD34+ cells is 2.5-fold enhanced by flk-2/flt-3 ligand or c-kit ligand (stem cell factor) and five-fold enhanced by a combination of these growth factors. In addition, the optimal serum for the generation of DCs is autologous HD-CTX recovery-phase serum rather than fetal calf serum (FCS) or steady-state human serum, which are clinically inadequate and ineffective, respectively. In practice, the stimulation of CD34+ cells in a blood cell autograft (15.75 +/- 2.46 x 10(6)/kg) provided by the above four growth factors should permit ex vivo generation of approximately 40 x 10(9) DCs in an adult patient. These new findings provide advantageous tools for the large-scale generation of DCs that are potentially usable for clinical protocols of immunotherapy or vaccination in patients undergoing cancer treatment.

In this report, we assess the content of primitive hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC) that circulate transiently in the peripheral blood (PB) of cancer patients (group A) who received a PB stem-cell-mobilizing regimen that included high-dose chemotherapy (HD-CTX) of 7 g/m2 cyclophosphamide followed by a combination of recombinant hematopoietic growth factors (C-HGF), including either interleukin-3 (IL-3) plus granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF), IL-3 plus granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), or a recombinant GM-CSF/IL-3 fusion protein (PIXY-321). These data were compared to the HPC content of PB obtained from a similar group of cancer patients that had not received such a mobilization regimen (group B). Monoclonal antibody staining and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) were used to identify and isolate cell populations enriched for more differentiated HPC (CD34+HLA-DR+) and more primitive HPC (CD34+HLA-DR-). The content of CD34+HLA-DR+ and CD34+HLA-DR- cells in the PB of group A patients was significantly greater than that observed in the PB of group B patients. In addition, HD-CTX plus C-HGF mobilization resulted in the appearance of greater numbers of PB colony-forming units-granulocyte/macrophage, -granulocyte/erythroid/macrophage/megakaryocyte, and -megakaryocyte (CFU-GM, CFU-GEMM, and CFU-Mk), and burst-forming units-erythroid and -megakaryocyte (BFU-E and BFU-Mk) than those observed in the PB of group B patients (p0.01). CD34+HLA-DR- cells isolated from the PB of group A patients were capable of initiating long-term hematopoiesis in vitro, which persisted for 10 weeks, while CD34+HLA-DR- cells obtained from the PB of group B patients were capable of sustaining long-term hematopoiesis in vitro for only 4 weeks. As determined by a limiting dilution analysis of group A PB CD34+HLA-DR- cells, the frequency of cells capable of giving rise to hematopoietic progenitor cells (pre-CFC) after 2 weeks in liquid culture was 4.3% (range 1.0-8.3%). Pre-CFC constituted 0.01% (range 0.001-0.02%) of group A PB mononuclear cells, and 151 pre-CFC were calculated to be present in 1 mL mobilized PB (range 20-310/mL). These results suggest that peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) collected by leukapheresis following HD-CTX plus C-HGF mobilization contain not only differentiated HPC but also more primitive HPC.

Most recently reported methods to select early hematopoietic cells basically rely on the depletion of committed progenitors. This task is generally accomplished by laborious procedures, which are sometimes difficult to reproduce. To simplify the selection method, we took advantage of the expression of the transferrin receptor (CD71) by proliferating committed progenitors and the lack of CD71 on noncycling immature progenitors. A monoclonal antibody (MAB) reactive with CD71 has been conjugated to the Saponaria officinalis seed ribosome-inactivating protein (SO6). The immunotoxin (IT) complex was used at increasing concentrations on normal non-phagocytizing bone marrow cells. A complete and reproducible killing effect on myeloid (colony-forming unit-granulocyte/macrophage [CFU-GM]) and erythroid (burst-forming unit-erythroid [BFU-E]) progenitors was observed for IT concentrations of 1 x 10(-7) M. Unconjugated SO6 or anti-CD71 MAB had no effect on cell growth and viability. IT-resistant cells were able to generate CFU-GM after 7, 14, and 21 days of suspension culture in the presence of 5637 CM. Maximal CFU-GM values were obtained at day 21 and nearly approached the pretreatment values (mean 2587 vs. 3877 CFU-GM/mL). Growth factor enhancement of CFU-GM yield was obtained only by stem cell factor (SCF) at day 7; SCF, as well as granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin-3 (IL-3), had an enhancing effect at days 14 and 21. IT toxicity on highly immature progenitors was ruled out by evaluating the growth of long-term culture-initiating cells (LTC-IC) from IT-treated cultures. LTC-IC frequency was found to be 1 out of 1506 seeded cells, which is within the range of normal untreated BM cells. In conclusion, anti-CD71 IT allows a simple and complete depletion of committed progenitors while sparing immature hematopoietic cells. The high CD71 expression by leukemic cells makes the procedure potentially suitable for in vitro purging.

Seven patients received cancer chemotherapy with high-dose cyclophosphamide (HD-CTX) associated with either recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rhG-CSF), rh interleukin-3 (rhIL-3), rh granulocyte-macrophage CSF (rhGM-CSF) plus rh erythropoietin (rhEpo), rhIL-3 plus rhGM-CSF, or rhIL-3 plus rhG-CSF. In the steady-state blood samples (before HD-CTX), megakaryocyte burst-forming units (BFU-Meg) and megakaryocyte colony-forming units (CFU-Meg) were virtually undetectable (or = 1/mL BFU-Meg and CFU-Meg, range 0 to 1) by assaying unfractionated leukocytes. In contrast, in the recovery-phase blood samples (after HD-CTX), BFU-Meg and CFU-Meg increased several hundred-fold over steady-state values. This occurred regardless of the in vivo growth factors used and in parallel with increases in mixed, erythroid, and myeloid progenitors. In vitro, recovery-phase BFU-Meg and CFU-Meg responded to the novel GM-CSF/IL-3 fusion protein PIXY321 similarly as to optimal concentrations of rhIL-3 and rhGM-CSF. However, these progenitors differed from those in the steady state because BFU-Meg had faster duplication time and CFU-Meg prevailed numerically (CFU-Meg to BFU-Meg ratio 3.4 [recovery] vs. 0.52 [steady state]). Furthermore, soluble c-kit ligand/rh stem cell factor (rhSCF), in vitro in combination with rhIL-3 and rhGM-CSF or PIXY321, increased the size but not the number of colonies derived from recovery-phase BFU-Meg and CFU-Meg. These quantitative and qualitative changes occurring in circulating megakaryocyte progenitors contribute to the understanding of the rapid platelet recovery that occurs when peripheral blood hematopoietic progenitors elicited by HD-CTX and growth factor(s) are transplanted into patients treated with myeloablative chemoradiotherapy.