NSGS mice humanized with cord blood mononuclear cells show sustained and functional myeloid–lymphoid representation with limited graft-versus-host disease

Abstract

Humanized immunodeficient mice serve as critical models for investigating the functional interplay between transplanted human cells and a pre-reconstituted human immune system. These models facilitate the study of molecular and cellular pathogenic mechanisms and enable the evaluation of the efficacy and toxicity of immunotherapies, thereby accelerating their preclinical and clinical development. Current strategies rely on inefficient, long-term/delayed hematopoietic reconstitution by CD34+ hematopoietic progenitors or short-term reconstitution with peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PB-MNCs) associated with high rates of graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) and an inefficient representation of immune cell populations. Here, we hypothesized that immunologically naïve cord blood mononuclear cells (CB-MNCs) could serve as a superior alternative, providing long-lasting and functionally effective immune reconstitution. We conducted a comprehensive comparison between the non-obese diabetic (NOD).Cg-Prkdc∧ˆscid-IL2rg∧ˆtm1Wjl/SzJ (NSG) and NSG-Tg(CMV-IL3,CSF2,KITLG)∧ˆ1Eav/MloySzJ (NSGS) immunodeficient mouse models following humanization with either PB-MNCs or CB-MNCs. We assessed the engraftment dynamics of various human immune cells over time and monitored the development of GvHD in both models. For the most promising model, we extensively evaluated immune cell functionality