Longitudinal clonal tracking in humanized mice reveals sustained polyclonal repopulation of gene-modified human-HSPC despite vector integration bias

Abstract

Clonal repopulation of human hemopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPC) in humanized mouse models remains only partially understood due to the lack of a quantitative clonal tracking technique for low sample volumes. Here, we present a low-volume vector integration site sequencing (LoVIS-Seq) assay that requires a mere 25μl mouse blood for quantitative clonal tracking of HSPC. Using LoVIS-Seq, we longitudinally tracked 897 VIS clones − providing a first-ever demonstration of clonal dynamics of both therapeutic and control vector-modified human cell populations simultaneously repopulating in humanized mice. Polyclonal repopulation of human cells became stable at 19 weeks post-transplant indicating faster clonal repopulation than observed in humans. Multi-omics data of human fetal liver HSPC provides a definitive evidence of vector integration preference for H3K36me3-enriched regions. Despite this bias the repopulation remains normal, underscoring the safety of gene therapy vectors. LoVIS-Seq provides an efficient tool for exploring gene therapy and stem cell biology in small-animal models.