Flt3 ligand promotes engraftment of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cells without significant graft-versus-host disease

Murad Y. Yunusov, George E. Georges, Rainer Storb, Peter Moore, Hans Hagglund, Verena affolter, Marina Lesnikova, M. John Gass, Marie Térèse Little, Michael Loken, Hilary McKenna, Barry Storer, Richard A. Nash*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background. Graft-versus-host (GVH) reactions contribute to stable engraftment of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplants. It was hypothesized that the in vivo expansion of recipient dendritic cells (DC) with the administration of ligand for Flt3 (FL) could promote allogeneic engraftment after reduced-intensity conditioning by enhancing the GVH effect. Methods. FL was first administered to three nonirradiated healthy dogs for 13 days at a dosage of 100 μg/kg/day. Next, nine dogs received 4.5 Gy total-body irradiation (TBI) and unmodified marrow grafts from dog leukocyte antigen (DLA)-identical littermates without posttransplant immunosuppression. FL was administered to the recipients at a dosage of 100 μg/ kg/day from day -7 until day +5. Results. In normal dogs, FL produced significant increases in monocytes (CD14+) and neutrophils in the peripheral blood, a marked increase in CD1c+ cells with DC-type morphology in lymph nodes, and increased alloreactivity of third-party responders to peripheral blood mononuclear cells in mixed lymphocyte reactions (P<0.001). Sustained engraftment was observed in eight of nine (89%) FL-treated dogs compared with 14 of 37 (38%) controls (P=0.02, logistic regression). All engrafted FL-treated dogs became stable complete (n=2) or mixed (n=6) hematopoietic chimeras without significant graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Recipient chimeric dogs (n=4) were tolerant to skin transplants from their marrow donors but rejected skin grafts from unrelated dogs within 7 to 9 days (median, 8 days). Conclusions. In this study, the authors showed that FL administered to recipients promotes stable engraftment of allogeneic marrow from DLA-identical littermates after 4.5 Gy TBI without significant GVHD.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)933-940
Number of pages8
JournalTransplantation
Volume75
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 15 2003

Funding

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Transplantation

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Flt3 ligand promotes engraftment of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cells without significant graft-versus-host disease'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this