2026-09-11 ジョージア工科大学
Inside this lab-grown bone marrow, blood vessels (green and grey) thread through a network of supportive cells and proteins (magenta). Antibody-producing cells (blue) move through this landscape, finding the signals they need to survive and keep making antibodies.
＜関連情報＞
- https://news.research.gatech.edu/2026/09/11/window-hidden-world-immunity-inside-human-bone-marrow
- https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adz3976
体外骨髄サブニッチはヒト抗体分泌細胞の運命に影響を与える Ex vivo bone marrow subniches influence the fate of human antibody-secreting cells
Liana Kramer, Zhonghao Dai, Jenna Corbin, Rachel Ringquist, […] , and Krishnendu Roy
Science Advances Published:11 Sep 2026
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adz3976
Abstract
Long-term humoral immunity relies on long-lived plasma cells in the bone marrow (BM). However, the processes governing plasma cell transport, positioning, and longevity within the BM niche remain poorly understood, especially in humans. Most existing knowledge comes from mouse studies or limited human-based models, which makes translating findings to human biology challenging. Here, we introduce a physiologically relevant human bone marrow-on-a-chip (hBMOC) model to investigate the behavior and interactions of human immune organoid-derived antibody-secreting cells (ASCs) within the human BM microenvironment. The hBMOC model is microvascular and perfusable and incorporates both endosteal and perivascular niches. We demonstrate that human ASCs migrate through blood vessels, accumulating and clustering in perivascular areas where they are closely associated with critical survival factors. In addition, we found that the presence of the endosteal niche substantially affects human ASC survival, movement, and retention, underscoring the dynamic interactions among human BM subniches that regulate ASC activity. We observed that a subset of human ASCs exhibits a dynamic stop-and-go migration pattern partially regulated by CXCR4-CXCL12 signaling. These findings provide direct insight into human ASC biology that has remained poorly defined, including their niche-specific localization, survival, and migratory dynamics within a three-dimensional human bone marrow microenvironment. Our results emphasize the distinct and cooperative roles of perivascular and endosteal compartments in supporting human ASC fate, offering previously inaccessible mechanistic insights into how human BM niches regulate plasma cells. This work lays the groundwork for studying plasma cell aging, vaccine durability, and disease-related dysfunction in human ASC maintenance and persistence.
