Deutsches Rheuma-Forschungszentrum Berlin (DRFZ), ein Institut der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft, Berlin, Germany.
Department of Immunology, Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU), Moscow, Russia.
Eur J Immunol. 2019 Nov;49(11):2103-2110. doi: 10.1002/eji.201948124. Epub 2019 Sep 5.
The naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glaber, NMR) is a rodent with exceptional longevity, low rates of age-related diseases and spontaneous carcinogenesis. The NMR represents an attractive animal model in longevity and cancer research, but there are no NMR-specific antibodies available to study its immune system with respect to age- and cancer-related questions. Substantial homology of major NMR immune cell markers with those of Guinea pig, human and, to a lesser extent, mouse and rat origin are implicated for the existence of immunological cross-reactivity. We identified 10 antibodies recognising eight immunophenotypic markers expressed on the NMR's T and B lymphocytes, macrophages/monocytes and putative haematopoietic precursors and used them for an immunophenotyping of leukocyte subsets of peripheral blood, spleen and bone marrow samples. Overall, we found that the leukocyte composition of NMR peripheral blood is comparable to that of mice. Notably, the frequency of cytotoxic T cells was found to be lower in the NMR compared to corresponding mouse tissues and human blood. Antibodies used in the present paper are available either commercially or from the scientific community and will provide new opportunities for the NMR as a model system in ageing- and cancer-related research areas.
裸鼹鼠（Heterocephalus glaber，NMR）是一种具有特殊长寿、低年龄相关疾病和自发癌变率的啮齿动物。NMR 是研究长寿和癌症的理想动物模型，但目前尚无针对 NMR 的特异性抗体可用于研究其免疫系统与年龄和癌症相关的问题。主要 NMR 免疫细胞标志物与豚鼠、人类以及在较小程度上与小鼠和大鼠的标志物具有高度同源性，这表明存在免疫交叉反应。我们鉴定了 10 种识别 8 种表型标志物的抗体，这些标志物表达在 NMR 的 T 和 B 淋巴细胞、巨噬细胞/单核细胞和假定造血前体细胞上，并将其用于外周血、脾脏和骨髓样本中白细胞亚群的免疫表型分析。总的来说，我们发现 NMR 外周血的白细胞组成与小鼠相似。值得注意的是，与相应的小鼠组织和人血相比，NMR 中的细胞毒性 T 细胞频率较低。本文中使用的抗体可从商业渠道或科学界获得，这将为 NMR 作为与衰老和癌症相关的研究领域的模型系统提供新的机会。
