Transplantation of Primary Human CD34+CD38 - Hematopoietic Stem Cells Recapitulates Idiopathic Myelofibrosis in the NOD/scid/IL2rgKO Mice.

Idiopathic myelofibrosis (IMF) is characterized by clonal proliferation of abnormal myelomonocytic cells and megakaryocytes. These cells are thought to secrete various cytokines resulting in reactive fibrosis and increased collagen content in the bone marrow (BM), and the fibrotic changes in the BM leads to extramedullary hematopoiesis and increased frequency of CD34+ cells in the peripheral blood (PB). Although IMF is thought to originate from an abnormality at the level of hematopoietic stem cell (HSC), this has not been experimentally addressed using primary human IMF samples. To demonstrate the involvement of HSCs in the pathogenesis of IMF and to establish an in vivo model of IMF, we employed the newborn NOD/SCID/IL2rg-null xenotransplantation model that efficiently supports engraftment of normal and malignant human stem cells. We purified PB CD34+ cells and PB CD34+CD38- cells from six IMF patients, and intravenously transplanted the purified cells into newborn NOD/SCID/IL2rg-null recipients. In long-term observation of the recipient mice, we analyzed human CD45+ hematopoietic cell chimerism both in the PB and in the BM, suppression of murine normal hematopoiesis, and the fibrotic changes in the BM. Six out of thirteen recipients transplanted with patient HSCs exhibited human hematopoietic engraftment, and CD33+ myeloid cells accounted for 80.5+/−9.41% of all the engrafted CD45 + population (as compared with the recipients transplanted with normal HSCs). BM of all engrafted recipients demonstrated fibrotic changes associated with increased proliferation of fibroblasts and the presence of human megakaryocytes, recapitulating the clinical features of IMF. In the 7 remaining recipients, PB hCD45 chimerism was < 1.5% at thirty-two weeks and decreased over time and fibroblast proliferation could not be demonstrated in the BM at forty weeks. To investigate the origin of BM fibroblast, we performed FISH analysis using human and mouse centromeric probes and immuno-staining using anti-CD45 and anti-vimentin antibodies. Of sixty fibroblasts examined, fifty-four cells were of human origin. These findings demonstrate that the IMF-initiating cells are contained within the CD34+CD38- HSC fraction and these cells possess differentiation capacity to fibroblasts. The newborn NOD/SCID/IL2rg-null xenotransplantation model provides an in vivo model of primary human IMF that may lead to better understanding of the mechanisms of IMF pathogenesis including the identification of IMF stem cells and the development of novel therapeutic agents for IMF.