title: Impact of sex, MHC, and age of recipients on the therapeutic effect of transferred leukocytes from cancer-resistant SR/CR mice.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Spontaneous Regression/Complete Resistant (SR/CR) mice are resistant to cancer through a mechanism that is mediated entirely by leukocytes of innate immunity. Transfer of leukocytes from SR/CR mice can confer cancer resistance in wild-type (WT) recipients in both preventative and therapeutic settings. In the current studies, we investigated factors that may impact the efficacy and functionality of SR/CR donor leukocytes in recipients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In sex-mismatched transfers, functionality of female donor leukocytes was not affected in male recipients. In contrast, male donor leukocytes were greatly affected in the female recipients. In MHC-mismatches, recipients of different MHC backgrounds, or mice of different strains, showed a greater negative impact on donor leukocytes than sex-mismatches. The negative effects of sex-mismatch and MHC-mismatch on donor leukocytes were additive. Old donor leukocytes performed worse than young donor leukocytes in all settings including in young recipients. Young recipients were not able to revive the declining function of old donor leukocytes. However, the function of young donor leukocytes declined gradually in old recipients, suggesting that an aged environment may contain factors that are deleterious to cellular functions. The irradiation of donor leukocytes prior to transfers had a profound suppressive effect on donor leukocyte functions, possibly as a result of impaired transcription. The cryopreserving of donor leukocytes in liquid nitrogen had no apparent effect on donor leukocyte functions, except for a small loss of cell number after revival from freezing.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Despite the functional suppression of donor leukocytes in sex- and MHC-mismatched recipients, as well as old recipients, there was a therapeutic time period during the initial few weeks during which donor leukocytes were functional before their eventual rejection or functional decline. The eventual rejection of donor leukocytes will likely prevent donor leukocyte engraftment which would help minimize the risk of transfusion-associated graft-versus-host disease. Therefore, using leukocytes from healthy donors with high anti-cancer activity may be a feasible therapeutic concept for treating malignant diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27157, USA. jstehle@wfubmc.edu
authors.forename: John R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Stehle
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Blanks
authors.forename: Gregory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Riedlinger
authors.forename: Jung W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Kim-Shapiro
authors.forename: Anne M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Sanders
authors.forename: Jonathan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.forename: Mark C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Willingham
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cui
mesh_terms: D019264:Adoptive Transfer; D000818:Animals; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D005260:Female; D006649:Histocompatibility Antigens / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D017708:Leukocyte Transfusion; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000628:therapy*; D012737:Sex Factors; D014181:Transplantation Immunology
chemical_list: D006649:Histocompatibility Antigens