Study: New mouse model of human immune system will help advance cancer and infectious disease research
| Date: May 9, 2005 | 
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Bar Harbor, Maine - A laboratory model of the human immune system, developed at The Jackson Laboratory, will allow scientists to do critical studies to improve the results of hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation for the treatment of leukemia, sickle cell disease, and other blood disorders, without putting patients at risk, according to investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. HSCs are cells from which all red and white blood cells arise.
The model will also be a valuable tool for studying how stem cells give rise to the various parts of the immune system, including T lymphocytes; how immune cells kill cancer cancers cells and fight infections; and how immune cells respond to radiation and chemotherapy, which are two major treatments for many cancers, the researchers say. A report on this work appears in the May 15 issue of The Journal of Immunology. The St. Jude researchers collaborated with a Jackson Laboratory team led by Senior Staff Scientist Leonard D. Shultz, Ph.D., and with investigators at the University of Tennessee, EMD Lexigen Research Center and the University of Massachusetts.
The breakthrough is particularly important because it solves an ethical dilemma facing researchers who study the human immune system, according to the study's lead researcher, Rupert Handgretinger, M.D., Ph.D., director of stem cell transplantation at St. Jude and co-leader of the Transplantation and Gene Therapy Program.
“Hematapoietic stem cell transplantation to replace a patient’s own blood system could cure many more people who have blood cancers and certain genetic and immune disorders,” Handgretinger says. “Unfortunately, this treatment has not reached its full potential, in part because of ethical limitations on studying stem cell transplantations in humans. Our new laboratory model will now let researchers around the world do many important experiments that will provide valuable insights into how the immune system works and how to increase the success rate of HSC transplantation.”
“Because this new humanized mouse model will permit studies of normal stem cell function, it will be a very important tool in research on regenerative medicine,” says Schultz. “The ability of these mice to support development of a functional human immune system should also facilitate the testing of experimental human vaccines and help us understand the mechanisms underlying human autoimmune diseases.”
Previous models of the human immune system were limited by relatively low levels of success in engraftment of HSCs and the failure of the engrafted cells to produce fully functional immune cells. Engraftment is the process in which stem cells infused into the body “take,” or are accepted, after which they produce the various types of blood cells normally found in the body.
The Jackson Laboratory Jackson Laboratory, founded in 1929, is the world's largest mammalian genetics research institution. Its research staff of more than 450 investigates the genetic basis of cancers, heart disease, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease, glaucoma, diabetes, and many other human diseases and disorders. The Laboratory is also the world's source for nearly 3,000 strains of genetically defined mice, home of the Mouse Genome Database and many other publicly available information resources, and an international hub for scientific courses, conferences, training and education.
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The above information was adapted from a press release prepared by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. For more information, please contact Carrie Strehlau Strehlau of St. Jude.
Contact(s): Joyce Peterson, joyce@jax.org, 207-288-6058
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