Improved Hematopoiesis in Anemic Sl/Sld Mice by Splenectomy and Therapeutic Transplantation of a Hematopoietic Microenvironment

The ability of a clonal hematopoiesis-supportive bone-marrow stromal cell line GBlneor to engraft and alter the microenvironment-induced anemia of Sl/Sld mice was studied. Prior to stromal cell transplantation, Sl/Sld mice received 1 Gy total body irradiation (TBI) and 13 Gy to the right hind limb. Two months after intravenous (IV) injection of 5 x 10(5) GBlneor cells, 54.4% +/- 17.0% donor origin (G418r) colony-forming cells were recovered from the right hind limb of Sl/Sld mice. Long-term bone marrow cultures (LTBMCs) established from GBlneor-transplanted mice produced 189.5 CFU-GEMM-forming progenitors/flask over 10 weeks compared with 52.7 +/- 6.2 CFU-GEMM forming progenitors/flask from irradiated nontransplanted Sl/Sld mice. A partial correction of macrocytic anemia was detected 2 months after GBlneor transplantation in splenectomized, irradiated Sl/Sld mice (HgB 7.2 +/- 0.4 g/dL; MCV 68.3 +/- 7.0 fL) compared to splenectomized, irradiated, nontransplanted Sl/Sld mice (HgB 5.5 +/- 1.1 g/dL; MCV 76 +/- 8.5 fL) or control Sl/Sld mice (HgB 5.4 +/- 0.5 g/dL; MCV 82.4 +/- 1.3 fL). Mean RBC volume distribution analysis showed a 2.5-fold increase in percentage of peripheral blood RBCs with MCV less than or equal to 45 fL and confirmed reduction of the MCV in splenectomized-GBlneor-transplanted mice compared to control Sl/Sld mice. A hematopoiesis-suppressive clonal stromal cell line derived from LTBMCs of Sl/Sld mice (Sldneor) engrafted as effectively (43.5% +/- 1.2% G418r CFU-F/limb) as did GBlneor cells (38.3% +/- 0.16% G418r CFU-F/limb) to the irradiated right hind limbs of C57Bl/6 mice. LTBMCs established after 2 or 6 months from Sldneor-transplanted mice showed decreased hematopoiesis (182 +/- 12 [2 months] and 3494.3 +/- 408.1 [6 months] CFU-GEMM forming progenitors/flask over 10 weeks) compared to those established from GBlneor-transplanted mice (5980 +/- 530 [2 months] and 7728 +/- 607, [6 months] CFU-GEMM progenitors forming/flask). Thus, transplantation of clonal bone-marrow stromal cell lines in vivo can stably transfer their physiologic properties to normal or mutant mice.