Immune Netw.  2021 Jun;21(3):e24. 10.4110/in.2021.21.e24.

Effect of Human or Mouse IL-7 on the Homeostasis of Porcine T Lymphocytes

• Hong JH
• Kim SH
• Kim HG
• Jang JH
• Son RG
• Pack SP
• Park YH
• Kang P
• Jeong KJ
• Kim JS
• Choi H
• Kim SU
• Jung YW

• KMID: 2518349
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4110/in.2021.21.e24

Abstract

Due to the inconsistent fluctuation of blood supply for transfusion, much attention has been paid to the development of artificial blood using other animals. Although mini-pigs are candidate animals, contamination of mini-pig T cells in artificial blood may cause a major safety concern. Therefore, it is important to analyze the cross-reactivity of IL-7, the major survival factor for T lymphocytes, between human, mouse, and mini-pig. Thus, we compared the protein sequences of IL-7 and found that porcine IL-7 was evolutionarily different from human IL-7. We also observed that when porcine T cells were cultured with either human or mouse IL-7, these cells did not increase the survival or proliferation compared to negative controls. These results suggest that porcine T cells do not recognize human or mouse IL-7 as their survival factor.

Keyword

IL-7; Miniature swine; Graft-versus-host disease; T-lymphocytes