Although the transcription factor PU.1 is essential for fetal lymphomyelopoiesis, we unexpectedly found that elimination of the gene in adult mice allowed disturbed hematopoiesis, dominated by ...granulocyte production. Impaired production of lymphocytes was evident in PU.1-deficient bone marrow (BM), but myelocytes and clonogenic granulocytic progenitors that are responsive to granulocyte colony-stimulating factor or interleukin-3 increased dramatically. No identifiable common lymphoid or myeloid progenitor populations were discernable by flow cytometry; however, clonogenic assays suggested an overall increased frequency of blast colony-forming cells and BM chimeras revealed existence of long-term self-renewing PU.1-deficient cells that required PU.1 for lymphoid, but not granulocyte, generation. PU.1 deletion in granulocyte-macrophage progenitors, but not in common myeloid progenitors, resulted in excess granulocyte production; this suggested specific roles of PU.1 at different stages of myeloid development. These findings emphasize the distinct nature of adult hematopoiesis and reveal that PU.1 regulates the specification of the multipotent lymphoid and myeloid compartments and restrains, rather than promotes, granulopoiesis.
The transcription factor encoded by the E-twenty-six (ETS)-related gene, ERG , is an essential regulator of hematopoietic stem cell function and a potent human oncoprotein. Enforced expression of ERG ...in murine hematopoietic cells leads to the development of a well-characterized lymphoid leukemia and a less well-defined non lymphoid disease. To clarify the latter, we generated murine bone marrow chimeras with enforced Erg expression in engrafted hematopoietic progenitor cells. As expected, these mice developed lymphoid leukemia. However, the previously reported non lymphoid disease that developed was shown to be a uniform, transplantable leukemia with both erythroid and megakaryocytic characteristics. In vivo, this disease had the overall appearance of an erythroleukemia, with an accumulation of immature erythroblasts that infiltrated the bone marrow, spleen, liver, and lung. However, when stimulated in vitro, leukemic cell clones exhibited both erythroid and megakaryocytic differentiation, suggesting that transformation occurred in a bipotential progenitor. Thus, in mice, Erg overexpression induces the development of not only lymphoid leukemia but also erythro-megakaryocytic leukemia.
Genetic screens in lower organisms, particularly those that identify modifiers of preexisting genetic defects, have been used successfully to order components of complex signaling pathways. To date, ...similar suppressor screens have not been used in vertebrates. To define the molecular pathways regulating platelet production, we have executed a large-scale modifier screen with genetically thrombocytopenic Mpl-/- mice by using N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea mutagenesis. Here we show that mutations in the c-Myb gene cause a myeloproliferative syndrome and supraphysiological expansion of megakaryocyte and platelet production in the absence of thrombopoietin signaling. This screen demonstrates the utility of large-scale N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea mutagenesis suppressor screens in mice for the simultaneous discovery and in vivo validation of targets for therapeutic discovery in diseases for which mouse models are available.
Genetically primed adult C57BL mice were deleted of exon 5 of the gene encoding the transcription factor PU.1 by IFN activation of Cre recombinase. After a 13-week delay, conditionally deleted ...($PU.1^{-/-}$) mice began dying of myeloid leukemia, and 95% of the mice surviving from early postinduction death developed transplantable myeloid leukemia whose cells were deleted of PU.1 and uniformly Gr-1 positive. The leukemic cells formed autonomous colonies in semisolid culture with varying clonal efficiency, but colony formation was enhanced by IL-3 and sometimes by granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor. Nine of 13 tumors analyzed had developed a capacity for autocrine IL-3 or granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor production, and there was evidence of rearrangement of the IL-3 gene. Acquisition of autocrine growth-factor production and autonomous growth appeared to be major events in the transformation of conditionally deleted$PU.1^{-/-}$cells to fully developed myeloid leukemic populations.
To determine the importance of suppressor of cytokine signaling-3 (SOCS3) in the regulation of hematopoietic growth factor signaling generally, and of G-CSF-induced cellular responses specifically, ...we created mice in which the
Socs3 gene was deleted in all hematopoietic cells. Although normal until young adulthood, these mice then developed neutrophilia and a spectrum of inflammatory pathologies. When stimulated with G-CSF in vitro, SOCS3-deficient cells of the neutrophilic granulocyte lineage exhibited prolonged STAT3 activation and enhanced cellular responses to G-CSF, including an increase in cloning frequency, survival, and proliferative capacity. Consistent with the in vitro findings, mutant mice injected with G-CSF displayed enhanced neutrophilia, progenitor cell mobilization, and splenomegaly, but unexpectedly also developed inflammatory neutrophil infiltration into multiple tissues and consequent hind-leg paresis. We conclude that SOCS3 is a key negative regulator of G-CSF signaling in myeloid cells and that this is of particular significance during G-CSF-driven emergency granulopoiesis.
Previous studies have shown that mouse bone marrow cells can produce mast cells when stimulated in vitro by stem cell factor (SCF) and interleukin-3 (IL-3). Experiments to define the marrow cells ...able to generate mast cells showed that the most active subpopulations were the Kit ⁺ Sca1 – progenitor cell fraction and the more ancestral Kit ⁺ Sca1 ⁺ blast colony-forming cell fraction. In clonal cultures, up to 64% of blast colony-forming cells were able to generate mast cells when stimulated by SCF and IL-3, and, of these, the most active were those in the CD34 – Flt3R – long-term repopulating cell fraction. Basophils, identified by the monoclonal antibody mMCP-8 to mouse mast cell serine protease-8, were also produced by 50% of blast colony-forming cells with a strong concordance in the production of both cell types by individual blast colony-forming cells. Enriched populations of marrow-derived basophils were shown to generate variable numbers of mast cells after a further incubation with SCF and IL-3. The data extend the repertoire of lineage-committed cells able to be produced by multipotential hematopoietic blast colony-forming cells and show that basophils and mast cells can have common ancestral cells and that basophils can probably generate mast cells at least under defined in vitro conditions.
When murine fetal liver cells were transduced with either of the human acute myeloid leukemia fusion oncogenes MLL-ENL or MLL-AF9 and then transplanted to irradiated recipient mice, myelomonocyte ...leukemias rapidly developed from the transplanted cells. Analysis of initial events following transduction showed that both oncogenes immediately induced a wide range of enhanced proliferative states, the most extreme of which could generate continuous lines of cells. Maturation defects accompanied the enhanced proliferative states. At all times, the transformed cells exhibited complete dependency on hematopoietic growth factors, particularly GM-CSF and IL-3. Myelomonocytic leukemic cells from primary or transplanted mice formed colonies in semisolid agar. The large majority were dependent on hematopoietic growth factors, but a low frequency of autonomous colonies was also detected. Unexpectedly, reculture of autonomous leukemic colonies generated large numbers of growth factor-dependent clonogenic progeny. Similarly, transplanted clonal autonomous leukemic cells produced leukemias containing a majority of factor-dependent cells. Conversely, recultures of factor-dependent colonies in vitro always produced small numbers of autonomous colonies among the dependent progeny. The reversible relationship between factor dependency and autonomy is surprising because autonomy would have been presumed to represent the final, irreversible, leukemic state.
Murine hematopoietic blast colony-forming cells (BL-CFCs) are able to generate up to 30,000 progeny blast cells within 10 d in agar cultures. Contained in these populations are large numbers of ...lineage-committed progenitor cells in the granulocytic and macrophage lineages. Sequential analyses of blast colonies revealed that self-generation of BD-CFCs occurs but is surprisingly late in clonal expansion, as is the emergence of progenitor cells committed to megakaryocytic and eosinophil lineages. Self-generating BL-CFCs were highly enriched in lineage⁻ Kit⁺ Sca1⁺ CD34⁻ Flt3R⁻ populations, and colonies generated by such cells contained colony-forming units—spleen and formed erythroid and lymphoid progeny in vivo. The data suggest the existence of a hierarchical structure in BL-CFC populations with at least a subset being cells assayable as colony-forming units—spleen. Because BL-CFCs can self-generate and are able to generate lymphoid and myeloid populations, BL-CFCs appear to be ideal cells in which to analyze the processes of self-generation and lineage commitment in clonal in vitro cultures.
Mice with inactivation of the gene encoding the suppressor of cytokine signaling-1 (SOCS-1) die in neonatal life with an IFN-γ-dependent inflammatory disease dominated by fatty degeneration and ...necrosis of the liver. To establish the long-term pathological consequences of loss of SOCS-1 in mice, where initial survival was made possible by also deleting the IFN-γ gene, a comparison was made of the lifespan of groups of SOCS-1-/-IFN-γ-/-, SOCS-1+/+IFN-γ-/-and SOCS-1+/+IFN-γ+/+mice. Mice lacking the genes for both SOCS-1 and IFN-γ exhibited an accelerated death rate compared with control groups. Disease states developing selectively in SOCS-1-/-IFN-γ-/-mice were polycystic kidneys, pneumonia, chronic skin ulcers, and chronic granulomas in the gut and various other organs. Mice of all three groups developed cataracts, but disease development was accelerated in the groups lacking IFN-γ. SOCS-1-/-IFN-γ-/-mice exhibited a slightly increased predisposition to the development of T lymphoid leukemia, either spontaneous or radiation-induced. The development of polycystic kidneys may be caused by a developmental defect in renal-tubule organization noted in neonatal SOCS-1-/-mice. The chronic infections and granulomas of SOCS-1-/-IFN-γ-/-mice may be based on autoaggression of SOCS-1-/-T lymphoid and related cells or a functional deficiency of these cells when lacking SOCS-1.
Murine granulocytic cells, in becoming leukemic, need to acquire enhanced self-generation and a capacity for autocrine growth stimulation. Mice transplanted with bone marrow cells transduced with the ...Mixl1 homeobox gene develop a very high frequency of myeloid leukemia derived from the transduced cells. Preleukemic mice contained a high frequency of transduced clonogenic granulocytic cells. They exhibited an abnormally high capacity for self-replication and could generate immortalized granulocytic cell lines that remained absolutely dependent on either GM-CSF or IL-3 and were not leukemic. Organs from mice repopulated by marrow cells transduced either with Mixl1 or the control murine stem cell virus vector exhibited a capacity to produce IL-3 in vitro, activity being highest with the lungs, marrow, bladder, and thymus. Supporting evidence for the in vivo production of IL-3 was the frequent development of mast cells in the marrow. Overexpression of Mixl1 appears capable of inducing an abnormal self-renewal capacity in granulocytic precursors. Aberrant production of IL-3 was not present in the continuous Mixl cell lines and was therefore not in itself likely to be a leukemogenic change but it could support the enhanced survival and proliferation of the Mixl1 granulocytic populations until a final leukemogenic mutation occurs in them.
PDF
