Highly efficient lentiviral-mediated human cytokine transgenesis on the NOD/scid background

Human neo-organ formation from stem cells can only be assayed by in vivo xenotransplantation. The human nonobese diabetic-severe combined immunodeficient (HuNOD/scid) CD34+ cell transplantation is a model that allows examination of hematopoietic tissue formation, although human hematopoietic cell maturation is abortive. Conventional humanization of the cytokine microenvironment has depended on generation of human cytokine-transgenic mice in strains appropriate for conventional plasmid microinjection, followed by backcrossing, a costly and time-consuming approach. Lentiviral vector infection of single-cell embryos was recently reported to produce transgenic animals. Using this approach, we have generated direct human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (hGM-CSF) transgenic mice from lentivirus-microinjected NOD/scid embryos, with 68% efficiency and 100% penetrance; this allowed us to obtain NOD/scid transgenic mice with considerable savings of resources. This powerful technique should assist in producing novel mouse models for the study of human blood cell lineage development and other human neo-organs from stem cell xenotransplantation for which a similar "humanization" rationale may be required.