Hematopoietic stem cell dose correlates with the speed of immune reconstitution after stem cell transplantation

In the current study, we tested whether higher numbers of hematopoietic stem cells correlate with the speed of immune reconstitution in a congenic transplantation model (C57BL/Ka, CD45.1, Thy1.1-->C57BL/6, CD45.2, Thy1.2) using purified hematopoietic stem cells (c-Kit(+)Thy1.1(low)Lin(-/low)Sca-1(+)). There were 3 different doses of stem cells used (400, 1000, and 5000). Phenotypic analyses in peripheral blood and spleen demonstrated that higher numbers of infused stem cells are associated with more rapid regeneration of T cells (CD4(+), CD8(+), naive CD4(+), naive CD8(+)) and B cells at early time points. The numbers of T and B cells eventually became equivalent between different dose groups at late time points. Production of interleukin-2 and inter-feron-gamma per T cell was similar regardless of stem cell dose even when tested at the time when there were significant differences in peripheral T-cell counts. The improved immune recovery was attributed to a more rapid regeneration of donor-type immune cells. Higher numbers of total thymocytes and signal joint T-cell receptor excision circles were observed in the higher dose stem cell recipients, suggesting that accelerated regeneration of T cells was due to enhanced thymopoiesis.