Project description:Infection is able to elicit innate immunological memory by enhancing a long-term myeloid output even after the inciting infectious agent has been cleared. However, mechanisms underlying such a regulation are not fully understood. Using a mouse polymicrobial peritonitis (sepsis) model, we show that severe infection leads to increased, sustained myelopoiesis after the infection is resolved. The infection experience is imprinted in the bone marrow (BM) stromal cells, in the form of a constitutive upregulation of the tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases 1 (TIMP1). TIMP1 antagonizes the function of ADAM10, an essential cleavage enzyme for the activation of Notch which in turn suppresses myelopoiesis. While TIMP1 is dispensable for myelopoiesis under the steady state, increased TIMP1 enhances myelopoiesis post infection. Thus, our data reveal that infection could establish an inflammatory memory in the BM niche to support a long-term enhanced output of innate immune cells.
Project description:Emergency myelopoiesis (EM) is critical for immune defense against pathogens, which requires rapid replenishing of mature myeloid cells. The EM process involves a rapid cell cycle switch from the quiescent hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) to highly proliferative myeloid progenitors (MPs). How this cell cycle switch is regulated remains poorly understood. Here, we reveal that ATG7, a critical autophagy factor is essential for the rapid proliferation of MPs during human myelopoiesis. Peripheral blood (PB) mobilized HSPCs with ATG7 knock-down or HSPCs derived from ATG7-/- human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) exhibit severe defect in proliferation at MP stage during myeloid/granulocytes differentiation. ATG7 deficient MPs show substantially elevated P53 protein and up-regulation of P53 signaling pathway genes. Mechanistically, ATG7 dependent autophagy mediates P53 degradation in lysosome that allows normal proliferation of MPs. Together, we reveal an essential role of autophagy for P53 degradation in cell cycle switch during human myelopoiesis
Project description:We investigated how suppression of the most upstream microRNA–processing RNase, Drosha, affects the differentiation of human CD34+ hematopoietic stem–progenitor cells (HSPCs). We hypothesized that knock-down of Drosha would alter blood lineage development by modulating the expression of microRNAs. Lentiviral delivery to HSPCs of a short-hairpin targeting Drosha resulted in a viable phenotype with promotion of myeloid, and especially monocytic, maturation and suppression of apoptosis. Our results show that Drosha deficiency triggered a parallel upregulation of components of the RNAi machinery, including DGCR8, Dicer and Ago2. Deep sequencing analyses revealed global miRNA deficiency after Drosha short-hairpin treatment with relative maintenance of mature miR-223 expression. Restoration of miR-223 to normal levels after Drosha knock-down further enhanced monocytic maturation concomitant with the modulation of myeloid transcription factors that promoted monocytic differentiation. Our results support a miRNA accentuation model in which relative enhancement of miR-223 increases levels of PU.1 thereby promoting monocytic differentiation. CD34+ HSPCs were isolated from umbilical cord blood and transduced with an empty lentivector (EV) or a lentivector encoding a short-hairpin RNA targeting the pri-miRNA–processing enzyme, Drosha (shDrosha). EV and shDrosha transduced HSPCs were grown in liquid culture promoting myelopoiesis and sampled on days 0 and 7 for total RNA collection. Total RNA was size fractionated to enrich for the small RNA population and deep sequenced using ABI's SOLiD 4.0 platform.
Project description:Systemic inflammation halts lymphopoiesis and prioritizes myeloid cell production. How blood cell production switches from homeostasis to emergency myelopoiesis is incompletely understood. Here we show that Lymphotoxin-b receptor (LTbR) signaling in combination with TNF and IL1 receptor signaling in mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) downregulates Il7 expression to shutdown lymphopoiesis during systemic inflammation. LTbR signaling in MSCs also promoted CCL2 production to enable inflammatory monocyte egress from the bone marrow. Furthermore, pharmacological or genetic blocking of Il7 downregulation in MSCs impaired myeloid cell production and egress, which reduced survival against systemic bacterial and viral infections. Interestingly, lymphotoxin a1b2 delivered by B-lineage cells, and specifically by mature B cells, contributed to promote Il7 downregulation and reduce MSC lymphopoietic activity. Our studies revealed an unexpected role for LTbR signaling in MSCs and identified mature B cells as an important regulator of emergency myelopoiesis.
Project description:Age is a major risk factor for cancer, but how aging impacts tumor control remains unclear. Here, we establish that aging of the immune system, regardless of the age of the stroma and tumor, impacts lung cancer progression. Hematopoietic aging enhances emergency myelopoiesis, resulting in the local accumulation of myeloid progenitor-like cells in lung tumors. These cells are a major source of IL-1⍺ that drives the enhanced myeloid response. The age-associated decline of DNMT3A enhances IL-1⍺ production, and disrupting IL-1R1 signaling early during tumor development normalized myelopoiesis and slowed the growth of lung, colonic, and pancreatic tumors. In human tumors, we identified an enrichment for IL-1⍺-expressing monocyte-derived macrophages linked to age, poorer survival, and recurrence, unraveling how aging impacts cancer.