Published in

Frontiers Media, Frontiers in Immunology, (13), 2023

DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.1079921

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Novel pre-clinical mouse models for chronic Graft-versus-Host Disease

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Published version: archiving allowed
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Despite considerable progress in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) has been achieved over the past years, chronic Graft-versus-Host Disease (cGvHD) still contributes to high morbidity rates, thus remaining a major hurdle in allo-HCT patients. To understand the complex pathophysiology of cGvHD and to develop refined prophylaxis and treatment strategies, improved pre-clinical models are needed. In this study, we developed two murine cGvHD models, which display high long-term morbidity but low mortality and depict the heterogeneous clinical manifestations of cGvHD seen in patients. We established a haploidentical C57BL/6→B6D2F1 allo-HCT model that uses myeloablative radiation and G-CSF-mobilized splenocytes as stem cell source and a sub-lethally irradiated Xenograft model, which utilizes the transfer of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) into NOD scid gamma (NSG)-recipients. We characterized both mouse models to exhibit diverse clinical and histopathological signs of human cGvHD as extensive tissue damage, fibrosis/sclerosis, inflammation and B cell infiltration in cGvHD target organs skin, liver, lung and colon and found a decelerated immune cell reconstitution in the late phase after HCT. Our pre-clinical models can help to gain a deeper understanding of the target structures and mechanisms of cGvHD pathology and may enable a more reliable translation of experimental findings into the human setting of allo-HCT.