Combined methods to evaluate human cells in muscle xenografts

PLoS One. 2019 May 2;14(5):e0211522. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0211522. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Xenotransplantation of human cells into immunodeficient mouse models is a very powerful tool and an essential step for the pre-clinical evaluation of therapeutic cell- and gene- based strategies. Here we describe an optimized protocol combining immunofluorescence and real-time quantitative PCR to both quantify and visualize the fate and localization of human myogenic cells after injection in regenerating muscles of immunodeficient mice. Whereas real-time quantitative PCR-based method provides an accurate quantification of human cells, it does not document their specific localization. The addition of an immunofluorescence approach using human-specific antibodies recognizing engrafted human cells gives information on the localization of the human cells within the host muscle fibres, in the stem cell niche or in the interstitial space. These two combined approaches offer an accurate evaluation of human engraftment including cell number and localization and should provide a gold standard to compare results obtained either using different types of human stem cells or comparing healthy and pathological muscle stem cells between different research laboratories worldwide.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cells, Cultured
  • DNA-Binding Proteins / genetics
  • DNA-Binding Proteins / metabolism
  • Female
  • Fluorescent Antibody Technique
  • Humans
  • Interleukin-2 Receptor beta Subunit / genetics
  • Interleukin-2 Receptor beta Subunit / metabolism
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Mice, SCID
  • Models, Theoretical
  • Muscle Fibers, Skeletal / cytology
  • Muscle Fibers, Skeletal / metabolism
  • Myoblasts / cytology*
  • Myoblasts / metabolism*
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Stem Cells / cytology
  • Stem Cells / metabolism

Substances

  • DNA-Binding Proteins
  • Il2rb protein, mouse
  • Interleukin-2 Receptor beta Subunit
  • Rag2 protein, mouse

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Association Française contre les Myopathies (17110) (GBB) and Sorbonne Université (SU-16-R-EMR-60) (CT). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.