Differentiation of Human Hematopoietic Stem Cells into iNKT Cells

Blood stem cells living in the bone marrow of adult humans give rise to all of the cells in our blood, including the red blood cells that carry oxygen to supply our body, and the white blood cells such as T and B lymphocytes that fight infections and keep us healthy. Among the T lymphocytes there is a small population called invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells. Despite their low frequency in humans (~0.001-1% in blood), iNKT cells have the remarkable capacity to mount immediate and potent responses when stimulated, and have been suggested to play important roles in regulating multiple human diseases including infections, allergies, cancer, and autoimmunity (such as Type I diabetes and multiple sclerosis). However, successful clinical interventions with iNKT cells have been greatly hindered by our limited knowledge on how these cells are produced by blood stem cells, largely due to the lack of tools to track these cells in humans. We therefore propose a novel model system to overcome this research bottleneck by transplanting human blood stem cells into a mouse and genetically programming these cells to develop into iNKT cells. This “humanized” mouse model will allow us to directly track the differentiation of human blood stem cells into iNKT cells in a living animal. From this study, we will address some critical unanswered questions for iNKT cell development, and shed light on developing stem-cell based iNKT cell therapies.