Beneficiary Effect of Autologous Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation in Idiopathic Ulcerative Dermatitis C57BL/6 Mice

Abstract

Idiopathic ulcerative dermatitis (IUD) is a distinctive skin disease in C57BL/6 mice. The pathogenesis of this disease is still unknown but it has been suggested that scratching character of this strain and immune complex induced vasculitis play a role. There is no established treatment for idiopathic ulcerative dermatitis. Naive C57BL/6 with lesions suggestive of IUD with ulceration, necrosis and bleeding were identified and confirmed clinically by institutional veterinarian. Mice with severe lesions were euthanized and skin sample biopsies confirmed IUD by pathology. Mice with mild to moderate ulceration were distributed into two groups, of which one was treated with autologous hematopoietic cell transplantion (HCT) and the remaining were kept as observation control. For HCT, recipients received 950cGy single dose total body irradiation followed by injection of bone marrow cells from IUD-free C57BL/6 mice. Animals were monitored daily until the end of week 4, when autologous transplant recipients showed improved skin condition without ulceration. Compared to observation controls, autologous transplant seemed to accelerate the healing process, suggesting that inducing temporary immune-incompetency targeting auto-reactive B and T lymphocytes seems beneficial in this disease. Suggesting that dysregulation of cellular immune responses is contributory to IUD, our findings further imply potential value for autologous HCT related immunosuppression in the treatment of chronic autoimmune dermatological diseases.