Inaug.-Diss.--München. / At head of title: Aus dem Hygienischen institut der Universität München ... Lebenslauf. "Schrifttum": p. 33-34.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2003. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2008. / "Graduate Program in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering." Includes bibliographical references (p. 163-174).

Human cells from acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients are frequently transplanted into immune-compromised mouse strains to provide an in vivo environment for studies on the biology of the disease. Since frequencies of leukemia re-initiating cells are low and a unique cell surface phenotype that includes all tumor re-initiating activity remains unknown, the underlying mechanisms leading to limitations in the xenotransplantation assay need to be understood and overcome to obtain robust engraftment of AML-containing samples. We report here that in the NSG xenotransplantation assay, the large majority of mononucleated cells from patients with AML fail to establish a reproducible myeloid engraftment despite high donor chimerism. Instead, donor-derived cells mainly consist of polyclonal disease-unrelated expanded co-transplanted human T lymphocytes that induce xenogeneic graft versus host disease and mask the engraftment of human AML in mice. Engraftment of mainly myeloid cell types can be enforced by the prevention of T cell expansion through the depletion of lymphocytes from the graft prior transplantation.