In Vitro Culture during Retroviral Transduction Improves Thymic Repopulation and Output after TBI and Autologous PBPC Transplantation in Rhesus Macaques.

We recently completed a longitudinal study over 12 months on T-cell immune reconstitution after total body irradiation and autologous transplantation of peripheral blood progenitor cells in 3–5 year old rhesus macaques. The focus of the study was to evaluate the source of T-cell recovery using three different sources of cells for transplantation. The starting number of CD34+ cells contained within the graft was adjusted to be the same for each of the three groups: unselected peripheral blood progenitor cells (PBPC) (n=3) vs. CD34+ selected mobilized PBPC (n=4) vs. CD34+ selected cells cultured for 4 days in vitro (Flt-3L/MDGF/SCF/retronectin) and retrovirally-transduced (n=3). Peripheral blood and lymph nodes were collected for phenotypic and TREC analysis. There was a trend for animals receiving cultured and transduced CD34+ cells to attain higher absolute naive and memory CD4+ T-cell, CD20+ B-cell and CD16+ NK-cell numbers in the first months after transplantation compared to the two other groups. There were no differences for numbers of CD8+ T-cells, monocytes or dendritic cells. The absolute TREC amount per μl blood of the CD4+ T-cells in the group that received selected-transduced cells was significantly higher than in the group that received unselected cells (p=0.0166) and for CD8+ cells significantly higher than for selected cells (p=0.0464). There was significantly less peripheral T-cell expansion as measured by Ki-67 expression in the selected-transduced group compared to the two other groups: At 1 month after transplantation the mean Ki-67 expression level for CD8+ cells in peripheral blood was 33.9% in the selected vs. 23.3% in the unselected vs. 8% in the selected-transduced group. Histology at 12 months revealed striking differences in the thymus between the 3 groups, while other organs (lymph nodes, spleen, tonsils and Peyer’s patches) showed no remarkable differences. In the CD34+ selected-transduced group the thymus showed preserved lobular architecture with well defined cortical and medullary areas, compared to atrophy with fat replacement, decreased thickness of the cortex, and cystic changes of the thymic epithelium in the CD34+ selected and unselected groups. The degree of atrophy was more pronounced in the latter group. This study demonstrates an enhanced ability of in vitro expanded and retrovirally transduced cells to repopulate the thymus compared to non-manipulated CD34+ selected cells. In vitro expansion and transduction may promote development of T-cell and NK-cells as has been described earlier for fetal thymic organ culture of cord blood CD34+ cells as well as in the SCID-hu mouse model. Our observation of an acceleration of T-cell and NK cell immune reconstitution following in vitro culture contrasts with limited prior clinical trial experiences describing poor repopulating potential of cultured progenitor cells. Our data suggest that in vitro culture and retroviral gene transfer per se does not induce an intrinsic differentation defect. Future studies are planned to examine mechanisms behind the improved repopulation ability of selected-transduced progenitor cells, which has important implications for gene therapy trials, and suggests that cultured cells may be useful for a number of clinical applications.