Murine CD47 expressed on the surface of human hepatocytes protects from murine macrophage action in vitro and in vivo

Macrophages play an important role in the rejection of transplanted xenogeneic cells. Recently, is has been shown that species-specific interaction between CD47 on target cells and SIRPα on macrophages inactivates macrophages and reduces phagocytosis. In this study we use lentiviral gene transfer to express murine CD47 in human cell lines to test whether they become less susceptible for phagocytosis by murine macrophages in vitro. In order to show the anti-phagocytotic effect of murine CD47 in vitro, we introduced murine CD47 into HepG2 cells by lentiviral gene delivery and performed phagocytotic assays with mou…