Establishment of a animal model of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation plus thymic epithelial cells transplantation / 中华器官移植杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the establishment of animal model of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation plus thymic epithelial cells transplantation,and then examine the feasibility and effects of thymic epithelial cells transplantation applied in allogeneic bone marrow transplantation.Methods One day before transplantation the recipient BALB/C mice were given total-body irradiation,then transplanted with bone marrow cells from donor C57BL/6 mice and thymic epithelial cells from E14-16 embryonic thymus of donor C57BL/6 mice.In order to explore the appropriate irradiation dose,we set up three different dose groups7 Gy;6.5 Gy;6 Gy.The recipient mice transplanted with BMT plus TCT served as experimental group,and those transplanted with BMT only served as control group (n =8 each).Then in vivo imaging in mammals was done to observe the thymic epithelial cells transplantation.Thymus index was measured.The thymus in each group was collected for histological examination and immunohistochemical staining of K5 and K8.Flow cytometry was used to examine the T cells subsets in peripheral blood of recipient mice 4 weeks after thymus transplantation.Results The recipient mice with 6.0 Gy TBI had long-term survival but implantation was done unsuccessfully,and those with 6.5 Gy had lower survival rate but implantation was done successfully.6.5 Gy was the minimum lethal dose and could be used as the appropriate irradiation does in this study.In vivo imaging in mammals detecting system showed the experimental group obvious fluorescent signals could be detected in the experimental group,but no fluorescence was found in the control group.Four weeks after transplantation,the thymus was bigger and thymus index was higher in the experimental group than in the control group.And the chiemra thymus of the experimental group also had normal cortex and medulla histological structure.Four weeks after transplantion,the percentages of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells of the peripheral blood in experimental group were significantly higher than in control group (P＜ 0.05).Conclusion Thymic epithelial cells can be transplanted in the thymus of the recipient mice with allogeneic bone marrow transplantation and promote the reconstitution of T lymphocytes of peripheral blood in the recipient mice.