Donor NK Cells and IL-15 Promoted Engraftment in Nonmyeloablative Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplantation

Donor NK cells could promote engraftment by suppressing host alloreactive responses during allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (allo-BMT). The biological activity of NK cells could be significantly enhanced by IL-15. The current study attempted to evaluate the effect of donor NK cells and IL-15 administration on engraftment and immune reconstitution in a murine nonmyeloablative allo-BMT model. Mice infused with donor NK cells and treated with IL-15 during nonmyeloablative allo-BMT resulted in increased donor engraftment compared with either treatment alone. The number of donor-derived cell subsets also increased in the spleen of the recipient mice with combination treatment. The alloreactivity to donor type Ags was significantly reduced in the recipient mice with donor NK cell infusion and IL-15 treatment, which was manifested by decreased proliferation and IL-2 secretion of splenocytes from recipient mice in response to donor type Ags in MLR and decreased capacity of the splenocytes killing donor type tumor targets. We subsequently exposed recipient mice to reduced irradiation conditioning and showed that donor NK cell infusion and hydrodynamic injection-mediated IL-15 expression could synergistically promote donor engraftment and suppress alloreactivity during nonmyeloablative allo-BMT. Infusion of CFSE-labeled donor CD45.1(+) NK cells demonstrated that IL-15 could enhance the infused donor NK cell proliferation and function in vivo. IL-15 treatment also promoted donor bone marrow-derived NK cell development and function. Thus, donor NK cell infusion and IL-15 treatment could synergistically promote the engraftment and the development of donor-derived cell subsets and suppress the host alloresponse in a murine nonmyeloablative allo-BMT model. The Journal of Immunology, 2012, 189: 1661-1670.