The cellular basis for the defect in haemopoiesis in flexed-tailed mice. II. The specificity of the defect for erythropoiesis

Extramedullary erythropoiesis in the adult liver requires BMP-4/Smad5-dependent signaling

OBJECTIVE

In mice, homeostatic erythropoiesis occurs primarily in the bone marrow. However, in response to acute anemia, bone morphogenetic proteins 4 (BMP-4)-dependent stress erythropoiesis occurs in the adult spleen. BMP-4 can also regulate stress erythropoiesis in the fetal liver. In humans, erythropoiesis occurs in the bone marrow. However, in certain pathological conditions, extramedullary erythropoiesis is observed, where it can occur in several organs, including the liver. Given these observations, we propose to investigate whether the BMP-4-dependent stress erythropoiesis pathway can regulate extramedullary erythropoiesis in the livers of splenectomized mice.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Using splenectomized wild-type and flexed-tail (f) mice, which have a defect in BMP-4 signaling, we compared their recovery from phenylhydrazine-induced hemolytic anemia and characterized the expansion of stress burst-forming unit-erythroid in the livers of these mice during the recovery period.

RESULTS

Our analysis indicates that in the absence of a spleen, stress erythropoiesis occurs in the murine liver. During the recovery, stress burst-forming unit-erythroid are expanded in the livers of splenectomized mice in response to BMP-4 expressed in the liver. f/f mice, which exhibit a defect in splenic stress erythropoiesis do not compensate for this defect by upregulating liver stress erythropoiesis. Furthermore, splenectomized f/f mice exhibit a defect in liver stress erythropoiesis, which demonstrates a role for the BMP-4-dependent stress erythropoiesis pathway in extramedullary erythropoiesis in the adult liver.

CONCLUSIONS

Our data indicate that the BMP-4-dependent stress erythropoiesis pathway regulates extramedullary stress erythropoiesis, which occurs primarily in the murine spleen or in the case of splenectomized mice, in the adult liver.

A mutation in a mitochondrial transmembrane protein is responsible for the pleiotropic hematological and skeletal phenotype of flexed-tail (f/f) mice

We have studied the flexed-tail (f) mouse to gain insight into mammalian mitochondrial iron metabolism. Flexed-tail animals have axial skeletal abnormalities and a transient embryonic and neonatal anemia characterized by pathologic intramitochondrial iron deposits in erythrocytes. Mitochondrial iron accumulation is the hallmark of sideroblastic anemias, which typically result from defects in heme biosynthesis or other pathways that lead to abnormal erythroid mitochondrial iron utilization. To clone the f gene, we used positional cloning techniques, and identified a frameshift mutation in a mitochondrial transmembrane protein. The mutated gene, Sfxn1, is the prototype of a novel family of evolutionarily conserved proteins present in eukaryotes.

The Hemoglobin-Deficit Mouse: Analysis of Phenotype and Hematopoiesis in the Transplant Model

The mouse mutant hemoglobin deficit (gene symbol hbd ) is characterized by a severe microcytic anemia that is inherited in an autosomal-recessive manner. To assess the mutation's effect on hematopoiesis, unfractionated bone marrow (BM) from either a mutant C57BL6/J-hbd/hbd, Gpi1b/Gpi1b (phenotype symbol HBD), or normal C57BL6/J -+hbd/+hbd, Gpi1b/Gpi1b mouse was injected intravenously into irradiated congenic C57BL6/J-+hbd/+hbd, Gpi1a/Gpi1a, Igha/Igha, Thy1a/Thy1a mice. The congenic recipients of mutant or normal marrow obtained complete red blood cell (RBC) and leukocyte reconstitution, with the exception of one recipient of HBD marrow. After 24 weeks posttransplantation, the normal recipients of HBD marrow obtained a microcytic anemia similar to the donor. These results suggest that the HBD phenotype is caused by a BM defect. We observed that the erythroid lineage derived from donor HBD marrow repopulated more slowly than the normal marrow at 4 weeks posttransplantation. To determine if this difference was a result of an erythropoietic defect, competitive repopulation was performed using either mutant or normal marrow competed against normal congenic marrow. For the erythroid lineage, no significant contribution from HBD marrow was observed. To assess if the RBC block was based on a deficiency of myeloid progenitors, both in vitro and in vivo assays were performed: absolute numbers of bone progenitors were increased, suggesting that the defect results in a late block to erythroid differentiation.

Stem cell renewal and determination during clonal expansion in normal and leukaemic haemopoiesis

Normal haemopoiesis is a cellular hierarchy headed by pluripotent stem cells capable of both self renewal and, after determination, the generation of differentiating lineages that end in terminal functional cells. The role of stem cells is crucial because only these have the capacity to generate clonal populations during development or after injury. During clonal expansion the cells are affected by many sets of receptors and ligands. These belong to at least two classes: one consists of growth factors that bind cell surface receptors and initiate signalling events; the other class contains receptors which act as ligand-dependent transcription factors such as the intracellular steroid superfamily. In spite of this elaborate regulatory apparatus, control during clonal expansion is lax, perhaps stochastic, as evident from the great heterogeneity disclosed by examining the cellular compositions of haemopoietic clones. It may be that the large number of signals impinging on binary possible outcomes (for example self-renewal or determination) serve to set probabilities rather than to determine outcomes. In leukaemia, many of the features of normal haemopoiesis are retained. The disease begins as transformations in normal stem cells; after additional leukaemogenic events clonal expansion yields malignant populations which are clonal in each affected individual. These dominant clonal populations retain the hierarchical organization found in the normal, the major difference is that post-deterministic divisions in leukaemia yield descendants that retain primitive (blast) morphology although proliferative capacity is lost. In acute myeloblastic leukaemia (AML) cell culture methods are available that permit the measurement of clonogenic blast stem cells. These methods have shown that regulatory mechanisms active in normal haemopoiesis are retained in AML, including lax regulation during clonal expansion. The biological features of blast stems cells displayed by the culture technique reflect in part, events in vivo, as associations have been found between results in cell culture and clinical outcome. Thus, study of leukaemic populations provides a challenge for basic science and an opportunity for successful application in control of disease.

Haemopoietic progenitor cells in prenatal congenitally anaemic 'flexed-tailed' (f/f) mice

The incidences of erythroid colony forming cells (CFUe) and granulocyte-macrophage colony forming cells (CFUc) have been measured in 11-18 d prenatal livers of mice of genotype f/f and nearly congenic +/+ controls. In normal fetal livers numbers of CFUe (cells able to form colonies of 16 or more cells after 72 h in vitro) rise to a maximum on day 14 of gestation and represent c 1% of total fetal liver cells. In f/f fetal livers, peak values for numbers and proportions of CFUe are 50% of normal. The f/f lesion does not reduce the numbers of CFUc in fetal liver. Since this deficiency in CFUe parallels deficiencies of similar magnitude in spleen-colony forming units (CFUs) and erythroblasts in the liver, and erythrocytes in the blood, of f/f fetuses it is concluded that the f/f lesion is expressed at an early stage of haemopoietic development in prenatal life. The possibility that restricted haem synthesis is the primary effect of the f/f genotype and responsible for disturbances of both haemopoietic cellular proliferation and haemoglobin synthesis is examined.

The cellular basis for the defect in haemopoiesis in flexed-tailed mice. III. Restriction of the defect to erythropoietic progenitors capable of transient colony formation in vivo

Three assays for erythropoietic progenitor cells have been applied to mice of genotype f/f and to nearly congenic +/+ controls. When f/f mice were tested for their ability to generate transient endogenous erythroid spleen colonies 4-6 days after 800 rads and 10 units of erythropoietin, the numbers of such colonies detected were greatly reduced, although normal numbers of spleen colonies appeared at later times (9-12 days) postirradiation. In contrast, cells capable of erythropoietic colony formation in culture (CFU-E) were present within the normal range in both f/f spleen and marrow and their sensitivity to erythropoietin in culture was the same as that found previously for CFU-E in the marrow and spleen of +/+ mice. Transfusion-induced plethora reduced the number of CFU-E in marrow to a similar extent in both f/f and +/+ mice; likewise, subsequent administration of 10 units of erythropoietin induced a rapid return in the number of marrow CFU-E in both genotypes. In the spleen, CFU-E numbers were approximately three-fold lower in f/f mice in each group. These results support the view that the 5 day assay for transient endogenous spleen colonies detects cells (TE-CFU) that are different from both CFU-E and pluripotent stem cells (CFU-S), although possibly overlapping to some extent with the immediate progenitors of CFU-E. The results also indicate that the generation or maturation of TE-CFU represents a primary site of expression of the f/f defect.

Disturbed haem and globin synthesis in reticulocytes of prenatal flexed-tailed (f-f) anaemic mice

Haem synthetase activity and co-ordination of α- and β-globin chain synthesis have been investigated in prenatal reticulocytes of congenic FL/4Re +/+Lvb/Lvband FL/1 Ref/f Lvb/Lvb, mice, which have a marked hypochromic, microcytic, siderocytic anaemia, with reduced erythrocyte numbers at birth, and also in other stocks bearing theflesion. Haem synthetase activity inf/freticulocyte homogenates was similar to that in normal cells but was markedly dependent on protoporphyrin added to the homogenate, while activity in normal cell homogenates was relatively independent of added precursor. In cultured normal prenatal reticulocytes α- and β-globin was synthesized in approximately equal amounts during a 4 h labelling period, but inf/freticulocytes there was an approximate 50% deficiency in β-globin chain synthesis. This deficiency could be repaired by added haem but not by protoporphyrin. Such a lesion is quantitatively consistent with the observed hypochromia of neonatalf/ferythrocytes. The relationship of this abnormality to effects of theflocus on early erythropoietic precursor cells is discussed.

Appearance and distribution of ferritin in mouse peritoneal macrophages in vitro after uptake of heterologous erythrocytes

Mouse peritoneal macrophages have been studied in vitro after ingestion of treated rat, rabbit, or sheep erythrocytes. Under light microscopy, phagocytic vacuoles persist up to 24 h. Macrophages lose benzidine reactivity about 5 h after red cell ingestion, and they become prussian blue positive at 2 days. Ultrastructural studies show little or no ferritin in control macrophages not fed erythrocytes. In contrast, after red cell ingestion, ferritin is widely distributed in the cytoplasmic matrix and in some cytoplasmic granules by 48 h. The Golgi complex, pinocytic vacuoles, endoplasmic reticulum, nuclei, and mitochondria do not contain ferritin. Between 2 and 4 days, ferritin in cytoplasmic granules increases, concomitant with decrease in the ferritin in the cytoplasmic matrix. Evidence is presented suggesting that ferritin in the cytoplasmic matrix is translocated into cytoplasmic granules by autophagy. Polyacrylamide gel studies on macrophages after uptake of red blood cells labeled with radioiron confirm that macrophages produce radiolabeled ferritin by 4 days.

Physical separation of hemopoietic stem cells differing in their capacity for self-renewal

Bone marrow cells in suspension were separated into a number of fractions on the basis of cell size by sedimentation at unit gravity through gradients of fetal calf serum. The colony forming units (CFU) from the various fractions were tested for their self-renewal capacity using a double transplantation technique. The results indicate that the CFU in the fractions containing slowly sedimenting cells have an increased capacity for self-renewal in comparison with CFU in fractions containing rapidly sedimenting cells. In addition, a culture method was used to select populations containing CFU with increased self-renewal capacity, and these CFU were shown to sediment slowly in comparison with CFU of lower self-renewal capacity obtained from control cultures. It may be concluded that at least part of the heterogeneity observed in the CFU content of individual spleen colonies arises from the composition of the initial cell suspension, probably from intrinsic differences between the stem cells themselves.