International Immunology Advance Access originally published online on July 21, 2008
International Immunology 2008 20(9):1211-1218; doi:10.1093/intimm/dxn079
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manipulation of immune system via immortal bone marrow stem cells
School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 60 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637551, Singapore
Correspondence to: Christiane Ruedl; E-mail: ruedl{at}ntu.edu.sg
Extensive amplification of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and their multipotent primitive progenitors (MPPs) in culture would greatly benefit not only clinical transplantation but also provide a potential tool to manipulate all cellular lineages derived from these cells for gene therapy and experimental purposes. Here, we demonstrate that mouse bone marrow cultures containing cells engineered to over-express NUP98–HOXB4 fusion protein support self-renewal of physiologically normal HSC and MPP for several weeks leading practically to their unlimited expansion. This allows time consuming and cumulative in vitro experimental manipulations without sacrificing their ability to differentiate in vivo or in vitro to any hematopoietic lineage.
Keywords: hematopoietic stem cells, manipulation of immune system, NUP98-HOXB4
Transmitting editor: M. Reth
Received 25 April 2008, accepted 17 June 2008.