Cytokine dependent growth of human TF-1 leukemic cell line in human GM-CSF and IL-3 producing transgenic SCID mice

Although severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice are considered useful as an animal model for human hematopoietic diseases, the complete reconstruction of human hematopoietic cells can not be established even in these mice. This appears to be because human cytokines, adhesion molecules and extracellular matrices which support differentiation and growth of human hematopoietic cells differ from those in animals. To improve this animal model, we attempted to produce transgenic (Tg) mice producing human interleukin 3 (hIL-3) and human granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (hGM-CSF) with the homozygote of the scid gene. We established two Tg mouse lines, one releasing both 0.5-1 ng/ml of hIL-3 and 0.05-0.2 ng/ml of hGM-CSF in their sera and another releasing only high (2-10 ng/ml) levels of hGM-CSF. When human cytokine-dependent myeloid cell line, TF-1, was subcutaneously transplanted into these two Tg-SCID mouse lines, TF-1 could be successfully engrafted and grew in all lines of Tg-SCID mice but not in control mice. We also observed that TF-1 grows in GM-CSF Tg-SCID mice in a dose dependent manner in vivo and IL-3 shows an additive effect on its growth. These results indicated that these Tg-SCID mice were an useful in vivo model for investigating human leukemogenesis, especially the role of IL-3 and GM-CSF in leukemogenesis. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.