Project description:We sought to understand the transcriptional profile of autophagy engaging vs non-engaging old hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) referenced against young HSCs. Bulk RNA-seq analyses indicated a large transcriptional divergence between the two oHSC subsets, with pathway analyses of differentially expressed genes (DEG) demonstrating enrichment in inflammatory signaling in AThi oHSCs and in oxidative metabolism signaling in ATlo oHSCs. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) inferred that several inflammation-coupled pro-autophagy regulators including p53, Bnip3l, Nupr1, and Nlrp3[22,23], in addition to quiescence enforcing checkpoints FoxO3a, Rb1 and Cdkn1a, were activated in AThi oHSCs.
Project description:yHSC AThi oHSC ATlo oHSC ATAC-Seq - Differences in Chromatin Accessibility in Autophagy engaging vs non-autophagy engaging old hematopoeitic stem cells (HSC) comapred to young HSC.
Project description:Activation of mostly quiescent hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) is a prerequisite for life-long blood production1, 2. This process requires major molecular adaptations to meet the regulatory and metabolic requirements for cell division3-8. The mechanisms governing cellular reprograming upon stem cell activation and their subsequent return to quiescence are still not fully characterized. Here, we describe a role for chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA)9, a selective form of lysosomal protein degradation, in sustaining adult HSC function. CMA is required for stem cell protein quality control and upregulation of fatty acid metabolism upon HSC activation. We identify that CMA activity decreases with age in HSC and show that genetic or pharmacological activation of CMA can restore functionality of old HSC. Together, our findings provide mechanistic insights into a new role for CMA in sustaining quality control, appropriate energetics and overall long-term hematopoietic stem cell function. Our work supports that CMA may be a promising therapeutic target to enhance hematopoietic stem cell function in conditions such as aging or stem cell transplantation.
Project description:We performed paired WES from DNA isolated from AThi and ATlo hematopoietic stem cells (FACS sorted on the basis of GFP marker intensity, 33% GFPlo as ATHi, 33% GFPhi as ATlo) using tail DNA as an internal control to identify somatic mutations. Few mutations were called at a variant allele frequency of ≥ 5% in this bulk sequencing approach, in line with recent results obtained with more sensitive methods. We also observed a high degree of shared mutations between AThi and ATlo oHSCs within each biological replicate, and no conserved mutations across biological replicates. The majority of called mutations were intronic or synonymous single nucleotide variants with limited expected consequences for their encoded proteins. Taken together, these results indicate that differing autophagy levels in oHSCs are not explained by clonal divergence or differential mutagenic burden, nor do they point to mutagenic burden as a driver of oHSC dysfunction in 24-month-old mice. They also do not provide evidence for clonal evolution between AThi and ATlo oHSC subsets.