In vivo imaging of Treg cells providing immune privilege to the haematopoietic stem-cell niche

Stem cells reside in a specialized regulatory microenvironment or niche(1,2), where they receive appropriate support for maintaining self-renewal and multi-lineage differentiation capacity(1-3). The niche may also protect stem cells from environmental insults(3) including cytotoxic chemotherapy and perhaps pathogenic immunity(4). The testis, hair follicle and placenta are all sites of residence for stem cells and are immune-suppressive environments, called immune-privileged sites, where multiple mechanisms cooperate to prevent immune attack, even enabling prolonged survival of foreign allografts without immunosuppression(4). We sought to determine if somatic stem-cell niches more broadly are immune-privileged sites by examining the haematopoietic stem/progenitor cell (HSPC) niche(1,2,5-7) in the bone marrow, a site where immune reactivity exists(8,9). We observed persistence of HSPCs from allogeneic donor mice (allo-HSPCs) in non-irradiated recipient mice for 30 days without immunosuppression with the same survival frequency compared to syngeneic HSPCs. These HSPCs were lost after the depletion of FoxP3 regulatory T (T-reg) cells. High-resolutionin vivo imaging over time demonstrated marked co-localization of HSPCs with T-reg cells that accumulated on the endosteal surface in the calvarial and trabecular bone marrow. T-reg cells seem to participate in creating a localized zone where HSPCs reside and where T-reg cells are necessary for allo-HSPC persistence. In addition to processes supporting stem-cell function, the niche will provide a relative sanctuary from immune attack.