Comparative study of human hematopoietic cell engraftment into Balb/c and C57BL/6 strain of rag-2/Jak3 double-deficient mice

Abstract

Immunodeficient mice are becoming invaluable tools in human stem cell and tumor research. In this study, we generated Rag-2/Jak3 double-deficient (Rag-2(-/-)Jak3(-/-)) mice with a C57/BL6 and Balb/c genetic background and compared the human lymphohematopoietic cell engraftment rate. Human cord blood-derived CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells were successfully engrafted into Balb/c Rag-2(-/-)Jak3(-/-) mice; however, the engraftment rate was far lower in C57/BL6 Rag-2(-/-)Jak3(-/-) mice. Transplantation of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells resulted in the same tendency. Thus, a Balb/c background offers superior engraftment capacity than a C57/BL6 background and provides an attractive model for human hematopoietic cell engraftment. Copyright © 2011 Ayumi Ono et al.