Optimization of the harvesting and transduction of hematopoietic stem cells is critical to successful stem cell gene therapy. We evaluated the utility of a novel protocol involving flt-3 and G-CSF mobilization of peripheral blood stem cells and retroviral transduction using hematopoietic growth factors to introduce a reporter gene, murine CD24, into hematopoietic stem cells in nonhuman primates. Rhesus macaques were treated with flt-3 ligand (200 fg/kg) and G-CSF (20 fg/kg) for 7 days and autologous CD34+ peripheral blood stem cells harvested by leukapheresis. CD34+ cells were transduced with an MFG-based retroviral vector encoding murine CD24 using 4 daily transductions with centrifugations in the presence of flt-3 ligand (100 ng/ml), SCF (100 ng/ml) and PIXY (100 ng/ml) in serum free medium. Animals were sublethally irradiated (400 cGy) on the day of transplantation. Engraftment was monitored sequentially in the bone marrow and blood using both multiparameter flow cytometry and semi-quantitative DNA PCR. Our data demonstrate successful and persistent engraftment in multiple hematopoietic lineages, including granulocytes, monocytes and B and T lymphocytes. At 46 and 117 days post transplantation 75% and 6% of granulocytes, respectively, expressed mCD24 antigen at the cell surface. Peak in vivo levels of genetically-modified peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) approached 60% as assessed both by flow cytometry and PCR 18 days post transplantation. In addition, naive (CD45RA+ and CD62L+) CD4+ and CD3+8+ cells were the predominant phenotype of the T cells detected at this time. Engraftment has subsequently plateaued but persisted at between 10 and 15% of PBLs for 133 days. No cytotoxic T lymphocyte response against murine CD24 was detected. This degree of persistent long-lived, high level gene marking of multiple hematopoietic lineages,
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