Clinical-scale isolation of the total Aspergillus fumigatus-reactive T-helper cell repertoire for adoptive transfer.

Background Aims: Evidence of the criticality of the adaptive immune response for controlling invasive aspergillosis has been provided. This observation is supported by the fact that invasive aspergillosis, a grave complication of allogeneic stem cell transplantation, occurs long after myeloid reconstitution in patients with low T-cell engraftment and/or on immunosuppressants. Adoptive T-cell transfer might be beneficial, but idiosyncrasies of Aspergillus fumigatus and the anti-Aspergillus immune response render established selection technologies ineffective.

Identification and characterization of circulating variants of CXCL12 from human plasma: effects on chemotaxis and mobilization of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells.

Mobilization of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HPCs) is induced by treatment with granulocyte-colony stimulating factor, chemotherapy, or irradiation. We observed that these treatments are accompanied by a release of chemotactic activity into the blood. This plasma activity is derived from the bone marrow, liver, and spleen and acts on HPCs via the chemokine receptor CXCR4.

Gene expression analysis identifies novel genes participating in early murine liver development and adult liver regeneration.

Adult liver tissue regeneration may recapitulate molecular events of liver organogenesis. As gaps in our understanding of the fundamental processes that govern development and regeneration of the liver still exist, we studied gene expression in the developing liver at embryonic day 9.5 post coitum (E d9.

Human cord blood stem cells generate human cytokeratin 18-negative hepatocyte-like cells in injured mouse liver.

Differentiation of adult bone marrow (BM) cells into nonhematopoietic cells is a rare phenomenon. Several reports, however, suggest that human umbilical cord blood (hUCB)-derived cells give rise to hepatocytes after transplantation into nonobese diabetic-severe combined immunodeficient (NOD-SCID) mice. Therefore, we analyzed the hepatic differentiation potential of hUCB cells and compared the frequency of newly formed hepatocyte-like cells in the livers of recipient NOD-SCID mice after transplantation of hUCB versus murine BM cells.

Reevaluation of bone marrow-derived cells as a source for hepatocyte regeneration.

We have investigated the contribution of intrasplenic bone marrow transplants or in vivo mobilized hematopoietic stem cells to the formation of hepatocytes in normal and injured liver. Direct intrasplenic injections of bone marrow mononuclear cells (5 x 10(5) cells), Scal+/lin- hematopoietic stem cells (5 x 10(3)) cells, and highly purified "side population" hematopoietic stem cells (5 x 10(3)) derived from enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP)-transgenic mice [C57Bl/6-TgN(ActbEGFP)1Osb] were performed in normal C57Bl/6 mice (n = 6) and in C57Bl/6 mice following two thirds hepatectomy (n = 8). To test the effect of mobilized stem cells on transdifferentiation, C57Bl/6 mice (n = 12) were lethally irradiated and reconstituted with EGFP-positive bone marrow mononuclear cells in a second series of experiments.