Chemokines as novel and versatile reagents for flow cytometry and cell sorting

Area of Science:

• Immunology
• Cell Biology
• Biotechnology

Background:

• Cell therapy efficacy is often limited by poor cell homing to target sites.
• Chemokines regulate tissue-specific cell migration, making chemokine receptor expression crucial for homing.
• Current methods for selecting cells based on chemokine receptors have practical limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate an alternative method for selecting cells with specific chemokine receptor expression.
• To enhance the tissue-homing efficiency of therapeutic cells for improved cell therapy outcomes.
• To demonstrate the utility of labeled chemokines as cell-sorting reagents.

Main Methods:

• Utilized biotinylated chemokines (e.g., CCL19) to detect and bind cognate chemokine receptors (e.g., CCR7).
• Employed magnetic bead sorting with biotinylated chemokines to enrich for receptor-positive cells.
• Assessed the responsiveness and homing capability of sorted cells (T cells and dendritic cells).
• Validated the method's effectiveness across different species (murine and human cells).

Main Results:

• Labeled chemokines effectively detected their cognate receptors, comparable to antibodies.
• Biotinylated CCL19 enabled magnetic bead sorting to enrich CCR7-expressing cells.
• Sorted cells exhibited enhanced CCR7 responsiveness and improved lymph node homing.
• The chemokine-based sorting method proved effective for both T cells and dendritic cells across species.

Conclusions:

• Labeled chemokines are effective reagents for detecting chemokine receptors and sorting cells.
• This novel chemokine-based cell sorting approach is inexpensive, versatile, and applicable to various cell therapy contexts.
• This technology represents a significant advancement with broad therapeutic implications for enhancing cell homing.