T-cell depletion of allogeneic bone marrow using anti-αβTCR monoclonal antibody: Prevention of graft-versus-host disease without affecting engraftment potential in rats

Bone marrow chimerism may solve two major limitations in the transplantation of solid organs and cellular grafts: (1) the requirement for life-long immunosuppressive therapy, and (2) acute and chronic rejection. When untreated bone marrow is transplanted into major histocompatibility complex (MHC)– disparate rats, lethal graft-vs-host disease (GVHD) occurs in the majority of recipients. T-cell depletion using anti-CD3 and anti-CD5 monoclonal antibody (mAb) to avoid GVHD led to an increased occurrence of failure of engraftment. We previously identified a cellular population in mouse bone marrow that facilitates engraftment of highly purified hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) across complete MHC barriers. In light of the fact that facilitating cells have a CD8+/CD3+/TCR− phenotype and mostly coexpress CD5, we evaluated in this study whether T-cell depletion of rat bone marrow using anti-αβTCR mAb would retain engraftment potential yet avoid GVHD. T-cell depletion of bone marrow was performed using anti-αβTCR mAb and immunomagnetic beads. Recipients were conditioned with 1100 or 1000 cGy of total body irradiation and reconstituted with 100 × 106 T-cell depleted (TCD) MHC- and minor antigen-disparate bone marrow cells. Animals were monitored clinically and histologically for GVHD. Chimerism was assessed by flow cytometry. Immunomagnetic bead depletion resulted in a reduction of T cells from 1.92% ± 0.21% to 0.10% ± 0.04% of total bone marrow. T-cell depletion did not remove facilitating cells (CD8+/αβTCR−/γδTCR−/NK3.2.3−) from bone marrow. Further, the engraftment potential of TCD bone marrow was not affected, as 100% of animals engrafted and high levels of donor chimerism were detectable. Animals reconstituted with TCD bone marrow showed no clinical evidence of GVHD and histology revealed none to minimal changes, whereas recipients transplanted with untreated bone marrow succumbed to severe lethal GVHD. T-cell depletion using anti-αβTCR mAb and immunomagnetic beads selectively removes T cells from the bone marrow graft while sparing facilitating cells that are required for engraftment of allogeneic bone marrow across MHC barriers. Moreover, the cells required for engraftment of HSC do not produce GVHD.