白消安作为骨髓抑制剂在小鼠生成稳定的高水平骨髓嵌合体

Summary

We describe a protocol whereby busulfan conditioning permits the bone marrow of a recipient mouse to be replaced with bone marrow cells from donor mice ubiquitously expressing green fluorescent protein, in the absence of irradiation. This technique is useful to study bone marrow cell accumulation in the central nervous system.

Abstract

Bone marrow transplantation (BMT) is often used to replace the bone marrow (BM) compartment of recipient mice with BM cells expressing a distinct biomarker isolated from donor mice. This technique allows for identification of donor-derived hematopoietic cells within the recipient mice, and can be used to isolate and characterize donor cells using various biochemical techniques. BMT typically relies on myeloablative conditioning with total body irradiation to generate niche space within the BM compartment of recipient mice for donor cell engraftment. The protocol we describe here uses myelosuppressive conditioning with the chemotherapeutic agent busulfan. Unlike irradiation, which requires the use of specialized facilities, busulfan conditioning is performed using intraperitoneal injections of 20 mg/kg busulfan until a total dose of 60-100 mg/kg has been administered. Moreover, myeloablative irradiation can have toxic side effects and requires successful engraftment of donor cells for survival of recipient mice. In contrast, busulfan conditioning using these doses is generally well tolerated and mice survive without donor cell support. Donor BM cells are isolated from the femurs and tibiae of mice ubiquitously expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP), and injected into the lateral tail vein of conditioned recipient mice. BM chimerism is estimated by quantifying the number of GFP+ cells within the peripheral blood following BMT. Levels of chimerism >80% are typically observed in the peripheral blood 3-4 weeks post-transplant and remain established for at least 1 year. As with irradiation, conditioning with busulfan and BMT allows for the accumulation of donor BM-derived cells within the central nervous system (CNS), particularly in mouse models of neurodegeneration. This busulfan-mediated CNS accumulation may be more physiological than total body irradiation, as the busulfan treatment is less toxic and CNS inflammation appears to be less extensive. We hypothesize that these cells can be genetically engineered to deliver therapeutics to the CNS.

Introduction

Recently, there has been considerable interest in the roles of microglia and bone marrow (BM)-derived cells (BMDCs) in the central nervous system (CNS), both during disease as well as with normal aging. Microglia, the resident immune cells of the CNS, are now known to develop in the CNS following the entry of primitive myeloid progenitors during embryogenesis¹. Microglia retain aspects of their myelomonocytic lineage well into adult life. While evidence suggests that the contribution of BMDCs to the microglial pool is minimal in healthy adult animals¹, the role BMDCs play in the progression of various neurodegenerative diseases remains unclear. This uncertainty is compounded by the fact that it is difficult to distinguish BMDCs that accumulate within the CNS from endogenous resident microglia, as no universally accepted discriminating immunohistochemical marker has been identified. In order to monitor BMDCs in vivo, we employ a BM transplantation (BMT) protocol whereby endogenous BM cells of a recipient mouse are replaced with those of a donor mouse ubiquitously expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) under control of the β-actin promoter. This protocol permits the determination of both the localization and morphology of GFP+ BMDCs within the recipient mouse using immunohistochemistry, and facilitates further characterization of these cells using fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) followed by subsequent biochemical assays.

For a successful BMT, recipient BM cells need to be ablated (termed myeloablation) in order to generate niche space within the recipient BM to allow for donor cell engraftment. Often, myeloablation is achieved using total body gamma irradiation which induces double strand breaks in DNA that leads to cell death, particularly in actively dividing cells such as hematopoietic progenitor cells^2,3. The irradiation protocols are done to induce sufficient BM cell death such that animal lethality results if the recipient animal does not achieve adequate donor cell engraftment from BMT (so called ‘lethal irradiation’). However, irradiation requires a specialized facility and equipment, along with veterinary and animal husbandry resources not available to researchers at all institutions. Furthermore, myeloablative irradiation can cause potentially lethal damage to other tissues, and due to immunosuppresion, irradiated animals are more susceptible to secondary infections³. As such, reduced intensity conditioning (so called ‘RIC’ protocols) regimens have been developed that are intended to minimize potentially toxic side effects of the conditioning protocol in patients, particularly for use in at risk populations such as children and the elderly⁴.

Some RIC protocols rely upon chemotherapeutics such as busulfan in order to condition the BM compartment. Busulfan is a bifunctional DNA alkylating agent often used clinically as an alternative to irradiation^5,6. Notably, busulfan can be safely administered to mice by intraperitoneal (IP) injection and does not require the specialized facilities and equipment necessary to irradiate mice. Busulfan conditioning has been used extensively in our lab⁷, as well as in several other recent publications^8–11. When doses of 60-100 mg/kg are employed, high degrees of stable chimerism (>80% GFP+ cells) can be established in the peripheral blood and BM⁷. Importantly, at these doses myeloablation is not complete and as such mice are able to survive without receiving support BM cells (K. Peake, J. Manning, C. Lewis, and C. Krieger, unpublished observations). Moreover, with myelosuppressive busulfan conditioning there is rapid reconstitution of peripheral blood myelomonocytic cells by donor cells. However, the replacement of peripheral blood lymphocytes by donor cells is slower, highlighting the lack of immunosuppression that occurs with 60-100 mg/kg doses of busulfan compared to total body irradiation⁷.

We have successfully used busulfan-induced chimerism to investigate BMDCs in wild-type mice, as well as in mouse models of the neurodegenerative disorders amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)⁷ and Alzheimer disease. It has been observed that under certain conditions significant numbers of GFP+ BMDCs accumulate within the CNS^7,12. Importantly, like myeloablative conditioning with irradiation, busulfan conditioning followed by BMT is sufficient to allow for GFP+ BMDC accumulation within the CNS in both wild-type mice, and mice with neurological disorders^7–11. As a major obstacle in treating neurodegenerative disorders is the ability to get therapeutic molecules from the circulation into the CNS where they can exert beneficial effects, this raises the possibility that BMDCs could be engineered to express therapeutic molecules, and subsequently used as a vehicle to deliver therapeutics to the CNS of busulfan conditioned recipients, a mechanism we are actively investigating. Although we have found that myeloablative conditioning with irradiation leads to greater accumulation of GFP+ BMDCs in the CNS compared to busulfan conditioning⁷, irradiation may have considerable toxicity in patients with neurodegenerative disorders and in murine models of CNS disease.

While we, and many others, have used BMT models to study BMDCs in neurodegenerative disorders, the ability to largely replace the BM compartment of a recipient mouse with a distinctly identifiable population of BM cells is an invaluable tool for studying various aspects of the hematopoietic system. This includes a wide array of research topics such as hematopoietic lineage development, leukemia, organ transplantation, graft-versus-host disease, and immunobiology.

Protocol

注：伦理学声明：此协议已审查和批准由西蒙·弗雷泽大学的动物护理委员会（UACC;允许数字1037K-12和1060K-03），并符合加拿大议会动物保育，美国国立卫生研究院指南护理和使用实验动物，以及EEC理事会指令。 1.特别注意事项注：白消安是细胞毒性。处理并根据材料安全数据表和制度规定进行处置。 执行所有的技术在无菌层流罩。 消毒通?…

Representative Results

60-100毫克/公斤白消安是普遍受到老鼠的耐受性。然而，动物通常在调节阶段（〜5-10％），因此饮食减肥可能需要与对待诸如照射葵花籽鼓励饮食进行补充。 > 80％的GFP +细胞在外周血嵌合和BM的水平应始终实现使用60-100毫克/公斤马利兰7。我们的实验室已成功地利用这个协议产生超过100嵌合体小鼠> 80％GFP +细胞在外周血和骨髓，几乎我们所有的BMTs使用同基因捐献者和接受者的时候是?…

Discussion

马利兰调理允许高层骨髓嵌合小鼠造血细胞是容易检测的产生。可以无需照射设施来执行此调节。此外，骨髓抑制与剂量在这个协议中概述马利兰的耐受性良好，最小化毒副作用引起的清髓性剂量的辐射，并因此可能是一个更合适的技术，以产生BM嵌合在年轻的，年老，或患病的小鼠更容易清髓性照射。一些RIC协议使用低的，非myleoablative剂量全身照射，以尽量减少不良副作用，但这些协议仍然需?…

Materials

Name of Reagent/ Equipment	Company	Catalog Number	Comments/Description
Busulfex	Otsuka Canada Pharmaceutical Inc.	DIN 02240602	Dilute busulfan to 3 mg/mL with sterile PBS just prior to use. Busulfan is cytotoxic. Handle and dispose according to the MSDS and institutional guidelines.
ACK Lysing Buffer	Life Technologies	A10492-01	Other lysis buffer could be substituted but incubation times may need to be adjusted accordingly
Fetal Bovine Serum	Life Technologies	12483-020