The Open Immunology Journal

2009, 2 : 163-167
Published online 2009 October 27. DOI: 10.2174/1874226200902010163
Publisher ID: TOIJ-2-163

Generation of Eosinophils from Unselected Bone Marrow Progenitors: Wild-Type, TLR- and Eosinophil-Deficient Mice

Kimberly D. Dyer , Caroline M. Percopo and Helene F. Rosenberg
Laboratory of Allergic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.

ABSTRACT

We have recently devised a culture method that generates large numbers of eosinophils at high purity from unselected BALB/c mouse bone marrow progenitors [Dyer et al., 2008. J. Immunol. 181: 4004-9]. Here we present the extended scope of this approach, as we have used this method successfully to generate eosinophil cultures of virtually 100% purity from bone marrow from C57BL/6 mice, and from TLR2, TLR3, TLR7 and TLR9-gene-deleted mouse strains on the C57BL/6 background. Both wild-type and TLR3 gene-deleted bone marrow eosinophils (bmEos) are functional, releasing peroxidase in response to the secretogogue, platelet activating factor. We have also used this method to re-evaluate production of eosinophils in bone marrow cultures from 􀀂dblGATA mice, a strain that is eosinophildeficient in vivo. Interestingly, bmEos can be detected in the ΔdblGATA cultures (5% of total cells at day 10), although ~80-fold fewer bmEos are detected in 􀀂dblGATA than in parallel wild-type (BALB/c) bone marrow cultures. Overall, we find that generation of large numbers of eosinophils at high purity from unselected bone marrow progenitors proceeds efficiently in a variety of wild-type and gene-deleted strains, and as such this approach shows promise as a universal method for the study of eosinophil structure and function (199 words).

Keywords:

Cytokines, interleukin-5, toll-like receptors.