Visualizing Human Hematopoietic Stem Cell Trafficking In Vivo Using a Zebrafish Xenograft Model

Zebrafish is gaining increased popularity as a model organism to study stem cell biology. It also is widely used as model system to visualize human leukemic stem cells. However, xenotransplantation of primary human stem/progenitor cells has not been described. Here, we use casper pigmentation mutant fish that are transparent crossed to fli-GFP transgenic fish as recipients of red labeled human CD34(+) cells. We have investigated various conditions and protocols with the aim to monitor and visualize the fate of transplanted human CD34(+) cells. We here report successful use of casper mutant zebrafish embryos for the direct monitoring of human hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, differentiation, and trafficking in vivo.