Hematopoietic Repopulation, In Vivo, with Genetically Defined Clones Derived from HOXB4 Expressing ES-Cells.

In the context of somatic gene therapy of the hematopoietic system, transplantation of molecularly defined and, hence, “safe” clones would be highly desirable. However, techniques which allow gene targeting, subsequent in vitro selection and clonal expansion are only available for embryonic stem (ES) cells. After in vitro differentiation, some of their progeny cells are capable of mediating long term hematopoietic repopulation after transplantation into immunodeficient recipient mice, in vivo. This is especially efficient when the homeodomain transcription factor HOXB4 is ectopically expressed (1). We have recently shown that HOXB4-ES-cell derivatives behave similar to bone marrow cells also expressing this transcription factor ectopically, both in vitro and in vivo (2). Here we demonstrate that long term repopulation (>6 months) in Rag2^(−/−)γ C^(−/−) mice can be achieved with ES-cell derived hematopoietic cells (ES-HCs) obtained from single, molecularly characterized ES-clones, in which the insertion sites of the retroviral expression vector had been defined. Clones expressing HOXB4 above a certain level showed a high extent of chimerism in the bone marrow of transplanted mice (average 75%; range 45–95%, n=4) whereas ES-HC clones expressing lower levels only repopulated with very low efficiency (average 2.5% chimerism, range 1–4%, n=6 mice). These results suggest that the capability of long-term repopulation, in vivo, is highly dependent on the expression levels of HOXB4 in the transplanted clones. Only mice reconstituted with ES-HC clones expressing high amounts of HOXB4 and thus showing substantial chimerism, recapitulated the morphohistological phenotype observed in polyclonally reconstituted mice. This included the bias towards myelopoiesis, “benign” myeloid proliferation in spleen and the incompatibility of HOXB4 expression with T-cell poiesis (2). In summary, we demonstrate that repopulation of the hematopoietic system can be achieved with preselected clones of genetically manipulated stem cells in which a) the insertion site of the retroviral (gene therapy) vector has been characterized prior to transplantation and b) in which ectopic HOXB4 has to be expressed above a certain threshold level. Thus, ES cells carry the potential for performing safe somatic gene therapy when using integrating gene therapy vectors. Nevertheless, advanced cell therapy will certainly require the expression of HOXB4 in a regulated manner to avoid unwanted effects such as disturbed lineage differentiation.