title: Kinetics of Langerhans cell chimerism in the skin of dogs following 2 Gy TBI allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Langerhans cells (LC) are bone marrow-derived cells in the skin. The LC donor/recipient chimerism is assumed to influence the incidence and severity of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). In nonmyeloablative (NM) HSCT the appearance of acute GVHD is delayed when compared with myeloablative conditioning. Therefore, we examined the development of LC chimerism in a NM canine HSCT model.
  
  
  METHODS
  2 Gy conditioned dogs received bone marrow from dog leukocyte antigen identical littermates. Skin biopsies were obtained pre- and post-transplant. LC isolation was performed by immunomagnetic separation and chimerism analysis by PCR analyzing variable-number-of-tandem-repeat markers with subsequent capillary electrophoresis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All dogs engrafted. Compared to peripheral blood chimerism the development of LC chimerism was delayed (earliest at day +56). None of the dogs achieved complete donor LC chimerism, although two dogs manifested a 100 % donor chimerism in peripheral blood at days +91 and +77. Of interest, one dog remained LC chimeric despite loss of donor chimerism in the peripheral blood cells.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study indicates that LC donor chimerism correlates with chimerism development in the peripheral blood but occurs delayed following NM-HSCT.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Oncology, Palliative Medicine, Division of Medicine, University of Rostock, Ernst-Heydemann-Str. 6, 18057 Rostock, Germany.
authors.forename: Sabrina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Peters
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Oncology, Palliative Medicine, Division of Medicine, University of Rostock, Ernst-Heydemann-Str. 6, 18057 Rostock, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Junghanss
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Oncology, Palliative Medicine, Division of Medicine, University of Rostock, Ernst-Heydemann-Str. 6, 18057 Rostock, Germany.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Knueppel
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Oncology, Palliative Medicine, Division of Medicine, University of Rostock, Ernst-Heydemann-Str. 6, 18057 Rostock, Germany.
authors.forename: Hugo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Murua Escobar
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Oncology, Palliative Medicine, Division of Medicine, University of Rostock, Ernst-Heydemann-Str. 6, 18057 Rostock, Germany.
authors.forename: Catrin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Roolf
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Oncology, Palliative Medicine, Division of Medicine, University of Rostock, Ernst-Heydemann-Str. 6, 18057 Rostock, Germany.
authors.forename: Gudrun
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Knuebel
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Oncology, Palliative Medicine, Division of Medicine, University of Rostock, Ernst-Heydemann-Str. 6, 18057 Rostock, Germany.
authors.forename: Anett
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sekora
authors.affiliation: Institute of Legal Medicine, Division of Medicine, University of Rostock, St.-Georg-Str. 108, 18055 Rostock, Germany.
authors.forename: Iris
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Lindner
authors.affiliation: Electron Microscopic Centre, Division of Medicine, University of Rostock, Strempelstr. 14, 18057 Rostock, Germany.
authors.forename: Ludwig
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jonas
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Oncology, Palliative Medicine, Division of Medicine, University of Rostock, Ernst-Heydemann-Str. 6, 18057 Rostock, Germany.
authors.forename: Mathias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Freund
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Oncology, Palliative Medicine, Division of Medicine, University of Rostock, Ernst-Heydemann-Str. 6, 18057 Rostock, Germany.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lange
keywords: Chimerism; Dogs; Langerhans cells; Nonmyeloablative; Stem cell transplantation