Angiopoietin-Like 3 Affects Homing Ability of Hematopoietic Stem Cells.

Blood ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 116 (21) ◽  
pp. 2632-2632
Author(s):  
Masato Umikawa ◽  
Junke Zheng ◽  
HoangDinh Huynh ◽  
Chengcheng Zhang

Abstract Abstract 2632 Angiopoietin-like proteins (Angptls) are a seven-member family of secreted glycoproteins that share sequence homology with angiopoietins. It is known that several members of the Angptl family including Angptl3 support ex vivo expansion of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). However, the physiological role of Angptls in the hematopoietic system is not well known. Here we show that Angptl3 is expressed by both bone marrow stromal cells and HSCs. To study the intrinsic effect of Angptl3 in mouse HSCs, we isolated the same number of HSCs from wild-type and Angptl3-null mice and performed reconstitution analysis. Adult bone marrow Angptl3-null HSCs showed decreased repopulation compared to wild-type HSCs, suggesting that Angptl3 has cell-autonomous effect on HSC activity. By contrast, HSCs isolated from liver of the null mice had enhanced HSC repopulation activity than their wild-type counterparts. To study whether this effect is caused by difference in homing, we injected CFSE labeled wild-type HSCs and Angptl3 null HSCs into lethally irradiated mice, and checked the homing to bone marrow, spleen, and liver. While homing of these two types of cells to bone marrow or spleen was not significantly different, Angptl3 null HSCs homed better to the liver than the wild-type HSCs. Our result suggests that Angptl3 is important for the retention of HSCs in the bone marrow, and the absence of Angptl3 leads HSCs to move to extramedullary organs such as liver. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (10) ◽  
pp. 1099-1110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iordanis Pelagiadis ◽  
Eftichia Stiakaki ◽  
Christianna Choulaki ◽  
Maria Kalmanti ◽  
Helen Dimitriou

Blood ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 116 (21) ◽  
pp. 1604-1604
Author(s):  
HoangDinh Huynh ◽  
Junke Zheng ◽  
Chengcheng Zhang

Abstract Abstract 1604 Previously we identified IGFBP2 as an extrinsic factor that supports ex vivo expansion of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). The role of IGFBP2 in HSCs and cancer is very intriguing. IGFBP2 can bind to insulin-like growth factor (IGF) ligands and displays IGF-dependent growth inhibitory effects on many cell types. On the other hand, IGFBP2 is capable of stimulating growth of certain cancer cells, and is overexpressed in many cancer patients and its expression is correlated with cancer progression. Here we sought to study the role of IGFBP2 in regulation of the activity of normal HSCs. We showed that IGFBP2 was expressed in differentiated hematopoietic cells and bone marrow stroma but not in HSCs. Consistent with its gene expression pattern, IGFBP2-/- HSCs had similar repopulation activity as their wild-type counterparts. By contrast, when we transplanted HSCs into IGFBP2-/- or wild-type recipient mice, we found decreased in vivo repopulation of HSCs in primary and secondary transplanted IGFBP2-/- recipients, suggesting that the environmental IGFBP2 positively supports HSC activity. Further co-culture of HSCs with IGFBP2-/- or wild-type bone marrow stromal cells indicated that IGFBP2 produced by bone marrow stroma indeed supports HSC expansion. Consistently, HSCs in IGFBP2-/- mice showed decreased frequency and cell cycling, and had upregulated expression of cell cycle inhibitors of p21, p16, and p19. To determine whether IGFBP2's effect on HSCs depends on IGF signaling, we compared the repopulation of donor cells deficient for the IGF type I receptor in wild-type and IGFBP2-/- recipients. These HSCs that are defective in IGF signaling still have decreased repopulation in IGFBP2-/- recipients, suggesting that the environmental effect of IGFBP2 on HSCs is independent of IGF signaling. To identify the functional domain of IGFBP2 in regulation of HSC activity, we constructed IGFBP2 with mutated RGD domain or deleted c-terminus and used the mutant IGFBP2 proteins in ex vivo culture of HSCs. We found that the c-terminus of IGFBP2 is essential to support HSC activity. We are currently in the process of identifying the potential receptor of IGFBP2 on HSCs. In summary, we found that IGFBP2 supports the cycling of normal HSCs, and this effect is independent of IGF signaling. Our study is important in revealing the relationship among environmental cues and cell fates of stem cells and opens up a new avenue in investigation of the roles of IGFBP2 in stem cells and cancer. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Blood ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 126 (23) ◽  
pp. 1174-1174
Author(s):  
Darlene Monlish ◽  
Angela Herman ◽  
Molly Romine ◽  
Sima Bhatt ◽  
Laura G. Schuettpelz

Abstract Toll like receptors (TLRs) are a family of pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) that shape the innate immune system by identifying foreign pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPS) and host-derived damage associated patterns (DAMPS). TLRs are widely expressed on both immune cells and non-immune cells, including hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs). Of clinical significance, both lymphoproliferative and myelodysplastic syndromes have been linked to aberrant TLR signaling (Schuettpelz, et al., Front Immunol 2013; Varney, et al., Exp Hematol 2015). Despite extensive studies focused on the influence of TLRs through committed effector cell populations, more recent evidence suggests that these PRRs may elicit immune regulation from the more primitive level of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). As TLR2 is expressed on HSCs, in the present study, we sought to elucidate the effect of TLR2 signaling on HSCs, and determine the cell-autonomous versus non-autonomous effects of this signaling. To this end, we utilized the synthetic TLR2 agonist, PAM3CSK4, to assess the effects of augmented TLR2 signaling on HSC mobilization, function, cycling, and differentiation. In previous studies, we found that TLR2 is not required for HSC function (Schuettpelz et al., Leukemia 2014); however, in the present study, treatment of wild-type mice with PAM3CSK4 led to HSC expansion in both the bone marrow and spleen, and a reduction in bone marrow megakaryocyte-erythroid progenitors (MEPs). Further, we observed increased HSC cycling and loss of function in competitive bone marrow transplantation assays in response to TLR2 agonist exposure. Treatment of chimeric animals (Tlr2-/- + Tlr2+/+ bone marrow transplanted into Tlr2+/+ or Tlr2-/- recipients) showed that these effects are largely cell non-autonomous, with a minor contribution from cell-autonomous TLR2 signaling. Analysis of serum, bone marrow, and spleen samples by cytokine expression arrays revealed an increase in G-CSF (serum) and TNFα (bone marrow) following TLR2 agonist treatment in wild-type mice. To further characterize the influence of these cytokines, respective receptor knockout models were employed. Inhibition of G-CSF enhanced HSC bone marrow expansion in response to PAM3CSK4, but partially rescued the expansion of spleen HSPCs. Likewise, loss of TNFa partially mitigated the expansion of spleen HSPCs in response to PAM3CSK4, and abrogated the PAM3CSK4-induced spleen HSC cycling. Further, we observed that loss of TNFa rescued the PAM3CSK4-mediated loss of bone marrow MEPs. Taken together, these data suggest that TLR2 signaling affects HSCs via both cell cell-autonomous and non-autonomous cues, with G-CSF and TNFa contributing to TLR2 agonist-mediated effects on HSC cycling, mobilization, and function. Ongoing studies aim to determine the particular cell types that are crucial for mediating the effects of TLR2 signaling on HSCs and elucidate the role of this pathway on HSCs in myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) pathogenesis and other hematologic malignancies. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Blood ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 118 (21) ◽  
pp. 1272-1272
Author(s):  
Hong (Jenny) Gao ◽  
Xiaoming Wu ◽  
Yan Sun ◽  
Jiayun Lu ◽  
Leslie E Silberstein ◽  
...  

Abstract Abstract 1272 Hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) give rise to mature cells of all lineages of blood and immune systems. HSC transplantation has shown great promise in the treatment of malignancies, reconstitution of hematopoietic systems and HSC-based gene therapy. Cell intrinsic factors/pathways have been the targets of intensive investigation for its potential application in HSC expansion. Over the past decades, several critical cell fate determination pathways, such as the Wnt signaling pathways and senescence pathways have been implicated in the proliferation and differentiation of HSC. Moreover, overexpression of HoxB4 and BMI1 was found to be able to expand human HSC 2∼3 folds. Nevertheless, the regulatory mechanisms of HSC proliferation and differentiation remain incompletely understood and safe and efficacious expansion of human HSC remains as a fundamental challenge that limits the clinical application of HSC-based therapy. VentX is a human homologue of the Xenopus homeobox protein Xom of the BMP4 signaling pathway. Using Xenopus model and methods of reverse genetics, our recent work showed that VentX is a LEF/TCF associated Wnt repressor and an activator of senescence pathways. VentX expression is highly regulated and restricted in hematopoietic cells and serves a major regulator of hematopoietic cell differentiation. To explore the potential role of VentX in proliferation and differentiation of HSC during hematopoiesis, we quantified VentX expression during hematopoiesis, using qRT-PCR methods and examined the effects of altered VentX expression on HSC properties in vitro and in vivo. Our data showed that VentX expression is significantly up-regulated during oncogenesis of hematopioetic cells. We demonstrated that lentiviral knockdown of VentX allowed for more than 5 fold ex vivo expansion of human HSC with balanced lineage development. Importantly, transient knockdown of VentX by siRNA also led to expansion of HSC. The effect of VentX down-regulation on the expansion of human HSC was also demonstrated by enhanced engraftment in the SCID/NODγ2null mouse model. Consistent with its role as a novel regulator of HSC, overexpression of VentX significantly inhibited clonal genesis of HSC. Mechanistically, we demonstrated that VentX controls the expression of cell cycle regulators downstream of the Wnt and senescence pathways, such as the C-myc, CyclinD1 and p21. In summary, using methods of reverse genetic and developmental modeling, we identified VentX as a novel regulator for expansion of human BM HSC. The results of our investigations provide novel insight in regulating HSC proliferation and differentiation. In addition, the findings that transient down-regulation of VentX by SiRNA lead to efficient expansion of bone marrow HSC suggests that VentX may serve as a novel target for safe expansion of HSC for its potential clinical applications. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Blood ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 122 (21) ◽  
pp. 2433-2433
Author(s):  
Tarik Moroy ◽  
Cyrus Khandanpour ◽  
Joseph Krongold

Abstract The efficacy of bone marrow stem cell transplantation is the therapy of choice for many hematopoietic diseases, in particular leukemia and lymphoma. This therapy is critically dependent on the transfer of sufficient numbers of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), which possess the capacity for self-renewal and can fully reconstitute the hematopoietic system. As such, the development of techniques for the expansion of fully functional HSCs is of significant clinical interest. By transiently manipulating the factors that govern HSC homeostasis it has been proposed that HSCs can be expanded without the loss of essential stem cell characteristics. Previously we have observed that ablation of the gene encoding the transcription factor Gfi1b in-vivo results in a dramatic expansion and mobilization of hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow and periphery. More recent data suggest that the blood mobilization of Gfi1b deficient HSCs is very likely mediated by a deregulation of the integrin expression. These data led us to hypothesize that Gfi1b could be a potential target for ex-vivo treatment and expansion of HSCs. Indeed, when deletion of Gfi1b was induced in whole bone marrow ex-vivo, HSCs showed a significant expansion in both in absolute number and in terms of proportion of bone marrow. We followed HSCs in ex-vivo expansion cultures from mouse bone marrow by tracking expression of the surface marker CD48, which indicates whether an HSC has transitioned to a differentiation committed multi-potent progenitor. We observed that Gfi1b null HSCs expanded without up-regulating CD48 in contrast to wt HSCs. This suggests that Gf11b deficient HSCs underwent symmetric self-renewal type cell divisions at a significantly increased frequency, when compared to wt HSCs. We had previously shown that HSCs lacking Gfi1b cycle at a faster rate than control HSCs. The combination of increased cell division and preferential self-renewal of Gfi1b-/- HSCs indicates that inhibition of Gfi1b may be the ideal strategy for ex-vivo HSC expansion. As well, in accordance with this preference for self-renewal, Gfi1b null HSCs that were cultured under myeloid differentiation conditions remained primarily in an undifferentiated state as defined by a lack of the myeloid surface markers Gr1 and Mac1. These cultures also demonstrated increased long term colony forming capacity versus controls, further supporting an undifferentiated phenotype in Gfi1b-/- cells. Because the stem cell niche is a highly complex and heterogeneous environment we also investigated whether bone marrow in which Gfi1b has been deleted exerts paracrine effects that contributed to HSC expansion. Co-Culture assays demonstrated that Gfi1b-/- bone marrow was able to induce an expansion of progenitors in wild-type bone marrow of more than 10 fold compared to Gfi1b-/+ bone marrow. Interestingly cells co-cultured with Gfi1b null bone marrow also exhibited an overall proliferation advantage after short-term cultures. This suggests that not only does Gfi1b deletion induce HSC expansion via cell intrinsic mechanisms, but also points to the possibility that this occurs through paracrine factors that alter bone marrow homeostasis. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Blood ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 110 (11) ◽  
pp. 642-642
Author(s):  
Minghui Tang ◽  
Zhenbiao Xia ◽  
Shubin Zhang ◽  
Shanshan Zhang ◽  
Xudong Wei ◽  
...  

Abstract TGFβ1-activated kinase 1 (TAK1), a member of the MAPKKK family, is a key mediator of stress and proinflammatory signals. TAK1 can be activated by inflammation-mediating cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α and interleukin-1b (IL-1β), as well as by T- and B- cell receptors (TCR/BCR), and Toll-like receptors (TLRs) signals. Activated TAK1 induces the nuclear localization of NF-kB and the activation of JNK/AP1 by stimulating IKKβ and MKK3/MKK6 phosphorylation respectively. TAK1 has been found to play an important role in inflammation, immunity, T- and B-cell activation, and epithelial cell survival. The TAK1−/ − phenotype is lethal in mice at the early embryonic stage. We found higher levels of TAK1 expression and activity in hematopoietic stem cells and progenitors (HSC/Ps), and reduced expression and activity in differentiated mature hematopoietic cells. To study the role of TAK1 in bone marrow hematopoiesis, we generated inducible-TAK1 knockout mice by crossing TAK1loxp mice with Mx1Cre mice, the latter being an interferon-inducible Cre mouse line. After injection of polyI:C to induce the knockout, we found that all the TAK1 knockout mice died within 8 to 10 days after the first polyI:C injection, showing severe hematopoietic and other defects; heterozygotes were phenotypically comparable to wild-type control animals. The TAK1 deletion in these mice resulted in ablation of bone marrow hematopoiesis due to the loss of C-Kit+ HSC/Ps. Annexin-V staining showed a 3-fold increase in apoptosis in the C-Kit+ HSC/Ps from TAK1 mutant mice compared to those from littermate control mice. Almost all of the mutant animals showed intestinal bleeding as well as other hemorrhaging due to the significant reductions in platelet counts. In reciprocal bone marrow transplantation experiments, we found that the TAK1-mutant bone marrow microenvironment was able to support the growth and function of wild-type HSC/Ps, while HSC/Ps from TAK1−/ − mice failed to grow within the wild-type bone marrow microenvironment. These observations suggest that the bone marrow ablation phenotype which develops in TAK1-mutant mice is the result of intrinsic defects in HSC/P’s. We propose that TAK1-mutant HSC/Ps might mediate a survival signal for HSC/Ps stimulated by hematopoietic growth factors and cytokines, such as stem cell factor (SCF). The details of possible mechanisms by which this phenomenon might occur is currently under active investigation by our group.


Author(s):  
Laura Mosteo ◽  
Joanna Storer ◽  
Kiran Batta ◽  
Emma J. Searle ◽  
Delfim Duarte ◽  
...  

Hematopoietic stem cells interact with bone marrow niches, including highly specialized blood vessels. Recent studies have revealed the phenotypic and functional heterogeneity of bone marrow endothelial cells. This has facilitated the analysis of the vascular microenvironment in steady state and malignant hematopoiesis. In this review, we provide an overview of the bone marrow microenvironment, focusing on refined analyses of the marrow vascular compartment performed in mouse studies. We also discuss the emerging role of the vascular niche in “inflamm-aging” and clonal hematopoiesis, and how the endothelial microenvironment influences, supports and interacts with hematopoietic cells in acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes, as exemplar states of malignant myelopoiesis. Finally, we provide an overview of strategies for modulating these bidirectional interactions to therapeutic effect in myeloid malignancies.


Blood ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 106 (11) ◽  
pp. 645-645
Author(s):  
Ashish Kumar ◽  
Weili Chen ◽  
John H. Kersey

Abstract Our understanding of the biology of MLL fusion gene leukemias is limited by the lack of knowledge of the effects of the different MLL fusion genes on expression of specific homoebox genes and the specific cell compartment(s) that are subsequently deregulated. In this study we investigated whether cellular deregulation was present in committed myeloid precursors and/or the multi-potent hematopoietic stem cells derived from Mll-AF9 knock-in mice. We used the murine knock-in model since it offers the advantage of a single copy of the Mll fusion gene under the control of the endogenous promoter that is present in every hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell. The Mll-AF9 knock-in mice display expansion of the myeloid compartment as early as 6 weeks of age (young adult) and develop myeloid leukemia at approximately 6 months. We purified hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and granulocyte-monocyte progenitors (GMPs) from wild type and Mll-AF9 young adult bone marrow. We depleted lineage positive cells using a magnetic separation system and purified the respective populations using fluorescence activated cell sorting with specific panels of antibodies (HSC=Li−/Thy1.1lo/IL-7R−/C-kit+/Sca-1+; GMP=Lin−/IL-7R−/Sca-1+/C-kit+/CD34+/CD16/32hi). We cultured these cells in methylcellulose supplemented with GM-CSF, IL-3, SCF and IL-6, conditions that promote the growth of myeloid colonies. We assessed growth deregulation by increased colony numbers at the end of 7 days of culture and by the predominance of dense, compact colony morphology, the latter comprised of immature myeloid cells. Culture of HSCs from Mll-AF9 and wild type mice yielded an identical number of colonies (1102 and 1315 colonies per 104 cells respectively, average). In contrast, GMPs from Mll-AF9 mice yielded almost four times the number of colonies compared to wild type GMPs (3331 and 920 colonies per 104 cells respectively, average). Additionally, Mll-AF9 GMPs formed a higher number of dense, compact colonies compared to Mll-AF9 HSCs (1314 and 352 colonies per 104 cells respectively, average). Neither HSCs nor GMPs from wild type mice formed dense, compact colonies. These results indicate a greater deregulation of GMPs compared to HSCs in Mll-AF9 mice. MLL fusion gene leukemias are characterized by over-expression of specific homeobox genes, and we have previously shown that Mll-AF9 bone marrow cells display increased expression of 5′ Hox-a genes and of the Hox co-factor Meis1 compared to wild type counterparts. We hypothesized that these genes are over-expressed in Mll-AF9 GMPs compared to wild type GMPs. Real time quantitative RT-PCR showed that expression levels of Hoxa7, Hoxa9 and Meis1 were increased in Mll-AF9 GMPs compared to wild type (2.7 ± 0.8, 11.7 ± 7.8 and 19 ± 11.3 fold respectively, mean ± SEM). Overall, these data support the hypothesis that the Mll-AF9 gene is “instructive” at the molecular level at least in part via specific homeobox gene over-expression, resulting in deregulation and expansion of specific progenitor/stem cells such as the GMP population. This expanded GMP population then becomes a target for secondary mutations and later development of leukemia. Future studies focused on understanding the biology of this compartment in Mll-AF9 mice will help in our understanding of the pathogenesis of leukemia and aid in the development of newer, more effective therapies.


Blood ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 112 (11) ◽  
pp. 2358-2358
Author(s):  
Ali Nowrouzi ◽  
Africa Gonzales-Murillo ◽  
Anna Paruzynski ◽  
Ariana Jacome ◽  
Paula Rio ◽  
...  

Abstract Improved protocols using lentiviral vectors have been established with minimal cytokine exposure and short transduction times proving more suitable for overcoming the disease-specific challenge in correcting functionally defective hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) of Fanconi Anemia (FA) patients. Bone marrow (BM) cells from FA patients were transduced ex vivo with lentiviral vectors (LVs) expressing FANCA and/or EGFP using optimized conditions to preserve the repopulating properties of the primitive hematopoietic stem cells (manuscript submitted). In a forward preclinical screening of possible LV-induced side effects we analyzed the insertional inventory in colonies generated by FA BM cells previously transduced with the LVs. We have established and optimized DNA and RNA isolation procedures for minimal cell numbers, suitable for large scale screening of colony forming cell (CFC) derived colonies by linear amplification-mediated PCR (LAM-PCR) and massive parallel pyrosequencing (454 GS Flx system; Roche). This approach is applicable for detecting early indicators of clonal selection, and is based on the analysis of common integration sites (CIS) and non-random distribution of vector insertions in particular genomic loci. From a total of 180 CFC-derived colonies expressing the EGFP LV marker gene, 298 vector insertions could be sequenced and mapped to the human genome. The analysis of vector targeted gene coding regions showed a non-random genomic distribution of LV insertions, with a significant overrepresentation of RefSeq genes that are part of distinct functional categories. Accordingly vector associated genes are predominantly involved in cellular signal cascades regulated by the MAP Kinase family known to be involved in a wide variety of cellular processes such as proliferation, differentiation, transcription regulation and development. Apart from the observed high integration frequency in genes (>80%), partial loss of vector LTR nucleotides was detected in >10% of the integrants (3–25bp). Notably, >20% of the lentiviral insertions were found to be located in CIS of predominantly 2nd order. Further screening assays of LV transduced CFC-derived colonies will allow a deeper investigation in the functional consequences of such CIS targeting in gene therapy protocols of FA. However our results suggest that the LV transduction of FA BM progenitors leads to a relatively high frequency of insertions in CIS which may be indicative of an insertion based (specific) selection mechanism. We herby show that the ex vivo large scale integration site analyses of CFC-derived colonies from patients considered to undergo gene therapeutic treatments constitutes a robust approach, which combined with mouse preclinical biosafety studies will help to improve the safety of clinical gene therapy protocols. The non-random distribution of LV integrations in CIS associated genes and in genes involved in particular cellular pathways may be indicative for the altered biochemical pathways characteristic of FA stem cells, with reported defects in DNA repair and self-renewal.


Blood ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 114 (22) ◽  
pp. 2504-2504
Author(s):  
Russell Garrett ◽  
Gerd Bungartz ◽  
Alevtina Domashenko ◽  
Stephen G. Emerson

Abstract Abstract 2504 Poster Board II-481 Polyinosinic:polycytidlyic acid (poly I:C) is a synthetic double-stranded RNA used to mimic viral infections in order to study immune responses and to activate gene deletion in lox-p systems employing a Cre gene responsive to an Mx-1 promoter. Recent observations made by us and others have suggested hematopoietic stem cells, responding to either poly I:C administration or interferon directly, enter cell cycle. Twenty-two hours following a single 100mg intraperitoneal injection of poly I:C into 10-12 week old male C57Bl/6 mice, the mice were injected with a single pulse of BrdU. Two hours later, bone marrow was harvested from legs and stained for Lineage, Sca-1, ckit, CD48, IL7R, and BrdU. In two independent experiments, each with n = 4, 41 and 33% of Lin- Sca-1+ cKit+ (LSK) IL-7R- CD48- cells from poly I:C-treated mice had incorporated BrdU, compared to 7 and 10% in cells from PBS-treated mice. These data support recently published reports. Total bone marrow cellularity was reduced to 45 and 57% in the two experiments, indicating either a rapid death and/or mobilization of marrow cells. Despite this dramatic loss of hematopoietic cells from the bone marrow of poly I:C treated mice, the number of IL-7R- CD48- LSK cells increased 145 and 308% in the two independent experiments. Importantly, the level of Sca-1 expression increased dramatically in the bone marrow of poly I:C-treated mice. Both the percent of Sca-1+ cells and the expression level of Sca-1 on a per cell basis increased after twenty-four hours of poly I:C, with some cells acquiring levels of Sca-1 that are missing from control bone marrow. These data were duplicated in vitro. When total marrow cells were cultured overnight in media containing either PBS or 25mg/mL poly I:C, percent of Sca-1+ cells increased from 23.6 to 43.7%. Within the Sca-1+ fraction of poly I:C-treated cultures, 16.7% had acquired very high levels of Sca-1, compared to only 1.75% in control cultures. Quantitative RT-PCR was employed to measure a greater than 2-fold increase in the amount of Sca-1 mRNA in poly I:C-treated cultures. Whereas the numbers of LSK cells increased in vivo, CD150+/− CD48- IL-7R- Lin- Sca-1- cKit+ myeloid progenitors almost completely disappeared following poly I:C treatment, dropping to 18.59% of control marrow, a reduction that is disproportionately large compared to the overall loss of hematopoietic cells in the marrow. These cells are normally proliferative, with 77.1 and 70.53% accumulating BrdU during the 2-hour pulse in PBS and poly I:C-treated mice, respectively. Interestingly, when Sca-1 is excluded from the analysis, the percent of Lin- IL7R- CD48- cKit+ cells incorporating BrdU decreases following poly I:C treatment, in keeping with interferon's published role as a cell cycle repressor. One possible interpretation of these data is that the increased proliferation of LSK cells noted by us and others is actually the result of Sca-1 acquisition by normally proliferating Sca-1- myeloid progenitors. This new hypothesis is currently being investigated. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


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