Project description:Restoration of hematopoiesis upon bone marrow (BM) transplantation relies on the engraftment, expansion and function of transplanted hematopoietic stem cells (HSC). However, the number of donorâderived HSC typically remain much below that present in normal individuals and this likely limits and delays hematopoietic recovery. HSC depend on supportive stromal niches, however, whether the preâconditioning required for BM transplantation damages this stromal niche has not been evaluated extensively. Using mouse models, we now find that that BM stroma cells (BMSC) are severely and permanently damaged by preâconditioning. Transplantation of primary but not cultured BMSC quantitatively reconstitutes stroma function in vivo, which is mediated by a multipotent CD73+ CD105â Sca1+ BMSC subpopulation. BMSC coâtransplantation significantly ameliorates clinical side effects of BM transplantation and doubles expansion of functional, donorâ derived HSC, demonstrating the potential of stroma transplantation to improve HSC transplantation. Purified CD45âTer119âCD73+ CD105â and CD45âTer119âCD73+ CD105+ cells were directly sorted on lysis buffer with FACS Aria 2 in triplicate.
Project description:Human bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) are key elements of the hematopoietic environment and they play a central role in bone and bone marrow physiology. However, how key BMSC functions are regulated is largely unknown. We analyzed the role of the immediate early response transcription factor EGR1 as key BMSC regulator and found that EGR1 was highly expressed in prospectively-isolated primary BMSCs, downregulated upon culture, and lower in non-CFU-F-containing CD45neg BM cells. Furthermore, EGR1 expression was lower in proliferative regenerating adult and fetal primary cells compared to adult steady-state BMSCs. Accordingly, EGR1 overexpression markedly decreased BMSC proliferation but considerably improved hematopoietic stroma support function as indicated by an increased production of transplantable CD34+CD90+ hematopoietic stem cells in expansion co-cultures. The improvement of BMSC stroma support function was mediated by increased expression of hematopoietic supporting genes, such as VCAM1 and CCL28. On the other hand, EGR1 knockdown increased ROS-mediated BMSC proliferation, and clearly reduced BMSC hematopoietic stroma support potential. These findings thus show that EGR1 is a key BMSC transcription factor with a dual role in regulating proliferation and hematopoietic stroma support function that is controlling a genetic program to coordinate the specific functions of BMSC in their different biological contexts.
Project description:The overall goals are these experiments are to identify genes and pathways that are critical for hematopoietic stem cell functions during bone marrow regeneration after transplantation. We have found that loss of expression of p190-B RhoGAP, a negative regulator of RhoGTPase, enhances HSC long-term engraftment. Hence, we used microarray analysis to compare gene exprssion profile of WT and p190-B-/- HSC after transplantation.
Project description:<p>We are studying the natural history, pathogenesis and treatment of patients with WHIM syndrome, an immunodeficiency disorder characterized by warts, hypogammaglobulinemia, recurrent infections and neutropenia usually due to autosomal dominant gain-of-function mutations in chemokine receptor <i>CXCR4</i>. We have identified a patient born with WHIM syndrome and the WHIM mutation <i>CXCR4<sup>R334X</sup></i> who has been disease-free for 20 years and who lacks <i>CXCR4<sup>R334X</sup></i> in myeloid cells, the cells that drive disease manifestations. She is a genetic and hematopoietic mosaic, since she still has the mutation in lymphoid cells and non-hematopoietic cells. Cytogenetics and microarray analysis revealed that the mechanism of loss of the mutation was deletion of the mutant allele from one copy of chromosome 2. Whole genome sequencing of patient neutrophil and skin fibroblast genomic DNA revealed that the mechanism of deletion was chromothripsis, a process of chromosome shattering resulting in deletions and rearrangements of the non-deleted chromosomal segments. In the patient, this process evidently occurred in a single hematopoietic stem cell (HSC), resulting in deletion of the disease allele <i>CXCR4<sup>R334X</sup></i> and one copy of 163 other genes on chromosome 2. This HSC evidently acquired a growth advantage and repopulated the HSC population and the myeloid lineage. Consistent with this, studies using gene targeted mice in competitive bone marrow transplantation experiments revealed that selective <i>Cxcr4</i> haploinsufficiency (inactivation of one copy of <i>Cxcr4</i> and not of any other genes) was sufficient to confer a strong engraftment advantage over bone marrow cells from wild type mice as well as bone marrow cells from a mouse model of WHIM syndrome. These results suggest that <i>CXCR4</i> knockdown may be a useful strategy to enhance bone marrow engraftment in the absence of toxic bone marrow conditioning regimens.</p>
Project description:Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSCs) have been employed in vitro to support HSPC expansion and in vivo to promote Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells (HSPCs) engraftment. Based on these studies, we developed an MSC-based co-culture system to optimize transplantation outcome of CRISPR-Cas9 gene-edited (GE) human HSPCs. We show that bone marrow (BM)-MSCs produce several hematopoietic supportive and anti-inflammatory factors capable to alleviate the proliferation arrest and mitigate the apoptotic and inflammatory programs activated in GE-HSPCs, improving their expansion and clonogenic potential in vitro. The use of BM-MSCs resulted in superior human engraftment and increased clonal output of GE-HSPCs contributing to the early phase of hematological reconstitution in the peripheral blood of transplanted mice. In conclusion, our work poses the biological bases for a novel clinical use of BM-MSCs to promote engraftment of GE-HSPCs and improve their transplantation outcome.
Project description:Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSCs) have been employed in vitro to support HSPC expansion and in vivo to promote Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells (HSPCs) engraftment. Based on these studies, we developed an MSC-based co-culture system to optimize transplantation outcome of CRISPR-Cas9 gene-edited (GE) human HSPCs. We show that bone marrow (BM)-MSCs produce several hematopoietic supportive and anti-inflammatory factors capable to alleviate the proliferation arrest and mitigate the apoptotic and inflammatory programs activated in GE-HSPCs, improving their expansion and clonogenic potential in vitro. The use of BM-MSCs resulted in superior human engraftment and increased clonal output of GE-HSPCs contributing to the early phase of hematological reconstitution in the peripheral blood of transplanted mice. In conclusion, our work poses the biological bases for a novel clinical use of BM-MSCs to promote engraftment of GE-HSPCs and improve their transplantation outcome.
Project description:Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSCs) have been employed in vitro to support HSPC expansion and in vivo to promote Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells (HSPCs) engraftment. Based on these studies, we developed an MSC-based co-culture system to optimize transplantation outcome of CRISPR-Cas9 gene-edited (GE) human HSPCs. We show that bone marrow (BM)-MSCs produce several hematopoietic supportive and anti-inflammatory factors capable to alleviate the proliferation arrest and mitigate the apoptotic and inflammatory programs activated in GE-HSPCs, improving their expansion and clonogenic potential in vitro. The use of BM-MSCs resulted in superior human engraftment and increased clonal output of GE-HSPCs contributing to the early phase of hematological reconstitution in the peripheral blood of transplanted mice. In conclusion, our work poses the biological bases for a novel clinical use of BM-MSCs to promote engraftment of GE-HSPCs and improve their transplantation outcome.
Project description:Transcriptional profile of bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells isolated from multiple sclerosis patients, before and after autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and compare to healthy controls.
Project description:We identified CD73+ bone marrow stromal cells as hematopoietic niche candidates. To further validate our finding, we tested the functional role of CD73 during bone marrow transplantation using CD73-/- mice. We evaluated the transcriptome of transplanted WT hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells from WT or CD73-/- recipient mice and found changes in metabolic, cell cycle and signaling genes.