Hematopoietic Potential and Retroviral Transduction of CD34"Thy-1" Peripheral Blood Stem Cells From Asymptomatic Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type-1 – Infected Individuals Mobilized With

The potential of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) from hu- HIV-1 DNA polymerase chain reaction. Furthermore, the pu-man immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1)–infected indi- rified cells showed normal hematopoietic potential in in vitro viduals, eg, self-renewal and multilineage differentiative ca- clonogenic assays. Successful gene transfer into committed pacity, might be perturbed due to the underlying disease. progenitor cells (colony-forming units-cells) and more primi-In this study, we assessed the HSC activity in the CD34"Thy- tive stem/progenitor cells (long-term culture colony-forming 1 " cell population of peripheral blood stem cells (PBSCs) of cells) could be shown after amphotropic retroviral transduc-three asymptomatic HIV-1–infected individuals after granu- tion. These data provide evidence that the CD34"Thy-1" locyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF; 10 mg/kg/d) mobili- stem cell compartment can be mobilized and enriched in zation. On day 4 of G-CSF treatment, 0.8 % to 1 % of the early stage HIV-1–infected patients. Furthermore, successful total blood mononuclear cells were CD34". Leukapheresis transduction of this cell population as a prerequisite for stem followed by a two-step cell isolation process yielded a cell-based clinical gene therapy protocols was demon-CD34"Thy-1 " cell population of high purity (76 % to 92 % strated. CD34"Thy-1 " cells). This cell population showed no evidence q 1997 by The American Society of Hematology. of HIV-1–containing cells based on a semiquantitativ