Very low levels of donor CD18+ neutrophils following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation reverse the disease phenotype in canine leukocyte adhesion deficiency

Children with the severe phenotype of the genetic immunodeficiency disease leukocyte adhesion deficiency or LAD experience life-threatening bacterial infections because of molecular defects in the leukocyte integrin CD18 molecule and the resultant failure to express the CD11/CD18 adhesion molecules on the leukocyte surface. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation remains the only definitive therapy for LAD; however, the degree of donor chimerism and particularly the number of CD18(+) donor-derived neutrophils required to reverse the disease phenotype are not known. We performed nonmyeloablative hematopoletic stem cell transplantations from healthy matched littermates in 9 dogs with the canine form of LAD known as CLAD and demonstrate that in the 3 dogs with the lowest level of donor chimerism, less than 500 CD18+ donor-derived neutrophils/muL in the peripheral blood of the CLAD recipients resulted in reversal of the CLAD disease phenotype. These results demonstrate the value of a disease-specific, large-animal model for identifying the lowest therapeutic level required for successful cellular and gene therapy. (C) 2004 by The American Society of Hematology.