Undetectable leukemic blasts and absence of NOD/SCID leukemia-initiating cells in cord blood from a case of maternal AML.
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Animals↗
Biomedical subjects
L Gallacher
Publications and source records attributed to L Gallacher.
Differential response of primitive human CD34- and CD34+ hematopoietic cells to the Notch ligand Jagged-1.
Recent reports indicate that activation of the Notch signaling pathway delays the differentiation of hematopoietic progenitors, suggesting that Notch may be used to develop novel ex vivo culture conditions for the expansion of primitive cells to be used in clinical transplantation. Here, we compare Notch expression and the effects of Jagged-1 treatment on highly purified subfractions of primitive CD34+ and CD34- human hematopoietic cells. Unlike response of cultured CD34+ cells, Jagged-1 treatment did not enhance the proliferation of CD34- cells, or promote differentiation of CD34- cells into CD34+ cells. While CD34+ and AC133-CD34- cells were shown to express all known forms of Notch receptors, Notch-3 and Notch-4 were not detected in AC133+CD34- cells. Similarly, CD34+ progeny of differentiated CD34- cells did not upregulate Notch-3 or Notch-4 upon differentiation, although transcripts for these genes were expressed in CD34+ arising from CD34+ CD38- parents, suggesting that the Notch receptor expression is tightly and differentially controlled. Fringe, known to inhibit Notch signaling in response to specific Notch ligands, was expressed in parent CD34- and CD34+ cells as well as their CD34+ progeny. We suggest that the inability of primitive CD34- cells to positively respond to Jagged-1 may be due in part to the absence of Notch-3 and Notch-4. Taken together, our study illustrates functional distinctiveness of the primitive CD34- subsets to CD34+ counterparts in relation to Jagged-1 response, and represents the first demonstration of a molecular difference among de novo isolated CD34+ compared to in vitro generated CD34+ cells arising from primitive CD34- or CD34+ parents.
Antigens, CD34↗
Coculture and transplant of purified CD34(+)Lin(-) and CD34(-)Lin(-) cells reveals functional interaction between repopulating hematopoietic stem cells.
The human hematopoietic stem cell compartment is comprised of repopulating CD34(+) and CD34(-) cells. The interaction between these subsets with respect to their reconstitution capacity in vivo remains to be characterized. Here, lineage-depleted (Lin(-)) human CD34(+) and CD34(-) hematopoietic cells were isolated from human male and female umbilical cord blood (CB) and transplanted into immune-deficient NOD/SCID EMV(null) mice, thereby allowing the use of human and Y-chromosome-specific DNA sequences to discriminate human reconstitution contributed by CD34(+) vs CD34(-) repopulating stem cells. Although cultured human CB CD34(-)Lin(-) cells transplanted alone possessed only minimal repopulating capacity, with 15% of mice achieving low levels of engraftment, transplantation of cocultured male CD34(-)Lin(-) cells with female CD34(+)Lin(-) cells demonstrated human repopulation with a contribution from CD34(-)Lin(-)-derived progeny in 80% of the recipients. After coculture and transplantation, male CD34(-)Lin(-) cells gave rise to primitive CD34(+)CD38(-) cells isolated in vivo, which demonstrated clonogenic progenitor function into multiple lineages. Taken together, our study indicates that the presence of CD34(+)Lin(-) cells in coculture enhanced the low repopulating function of human CD34(-)Lin(-) cells in vivo. We propose that CD34(+)Lin and CD34(-)Lin cells represent phenotypically distinct, but related cell types that exhibit unique and previously unappreciated functional interaction.
Animals↗
Human homologues of Delta-1 and Delta-4 function as mitogenic regulators of primitive human hematopoietic cells.
Delta-mediated Notch signaling controls cell fate decisions during invertebrate and murine development. However, in the human, functional roles for Delta have yet to be described. This study reports the characterization of Delta-1 and Delta-4 in the human. Human Delta-4 was found to be expressed in a wide range of adult and fetal tissues, including sites of hematopoiesis. Subsets of immature hematopoietic cells, along with stromal and endothelial cells that support hematopoiesis, were shown to express Notch and both Delta-1 and Delta-4. Soluble forms of human Delta-1 (h Delta-1) and h Delta-4 proteins were able to augment the proliferation of primitive human hematopoietic progenitors in vitro. Intravenous transplantation of treated cultures into immune-deficient mice revealed that h Delta-1 is capable of expanding pluripotent human hematopoietic repopulating cells detected in vivo. This study provides the first evidence for a role of Delta ligands as a mitogenic regulator of primitive hematopoietic cells in the human. (Blood. 2001;97:1960-1967)
Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing↗
Circulating hematopoietic stem cells serve as novel targets for in utero gene therapy.
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Adult↗
The human hematopoietic stem cell compartment is heterogeneous for CXCR4 expression.
The chemokine stromal derived factor-1alpha (SDF-1alpha) has been implicated recently in the chemotaxis of primitive human hematopoietic cells, suggesting that pluripotent human stem cells express the SDF-1alpha receptor, CXCR4. By using flow cytometry and confocal microscopy, we have identified and isolated primitive subsets of human CXCR4(+) and CXCR4(-) cells. Distinctions in the progenitor content and response to SDF-1alpha in vitro indicate that CXCR4(+) and CXCR4(-) cells represent discrete populations of primitive blood cells. The i.v. transplantation of these subfractions into immune-deficient mice established that both possess comparable engraftment capacity in vivo. Human myeloid, lymphoid, and primitive CD34(+) CXCR4(+) cells were present in chimeric animals transplanted with either subset, indicating that CXCR4(+) and CXCR4(-) stem cells have equivalent proliferative and differentiative abilities. Our study indicates that the human stem cell compartment is heterogeneous for CXCR4 expression, suggesting that the relationship between CXCR4 expression and stem cell repopulating function is not obligatory.
Animals↗
The notch ligand jagged-1 represents a novel growth factor of human hematopoietic stem cells.
The Notch ligand, Jagged-1, plays an essential role in tissue formation during embryonic development of primitive organisms. However, little is known regarding the role of Jagged-1 in the regulation of tissue-specific stem cells or its function in humans. Here, we show that uncommitted human hematopoietic cells and cells that comprise the putative blood stem cell microenvironment express Jagged-1 and the Notch receptors. Addition of a soluble form of human Jagged-1 to cultures of purified primitive human blood cells had modest effects in augmenting cytokine-induced proliferation of progenitors. However, intravenous transplantation of cultured cells into immunodeficient mice revealed that human (h)Jagged-1 induces the survival and expansion of human stem cells capable of pluripotent repopulating capacity. Our findings demonstrate that hJagged-1 represents a novel growth factor of human stem cells, thereby providing an opportunity for the clinical utility of Notch ligands in the expansion of primitive cells capable of hematopoietic reconstitution.
Animals↗
Identification of novel circulating human embryonic blood stem cells.
Using murine models, primitive hematopoietic cells capable of repopulation have been shown to reside in various anatomic locations, including the aortic gonad mesonephros, fetal liver, and bone marrow. These sites are thought to be seeded by stem cells migrating through fetal circulation and would serve as ideal targets for in utero cellular therapy. In humans, however, it is unknown whether similar stem cells exist. Here, we identify circulating hematopoeitic cells present during human in utero development that are capable of multilineage repopulation in immunodeficient NOD/SCID (nonobese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficient) mice. Using limiting dilution analysis, the frequency of these fetal stem cells was found to be 1 in 3.2 x 10(5), illustrating a 3- and 22-fold enrichment compared with full-term human cord blood and circulating adult mobilized-peripheral blood, respectively. Comparison of in vivo differentiation and proliferative capacity demonstrated that circulating fetal stem cells are intrinsically distinct from hematopoietic stem cells found later in human development and those derived from the fetal liver or fetal bone marrow compartment at equivalent gestation. Taken together, these studies demonstrate the existence of unique circulating stem cells in early human embryonic development that provide a novel and previously unexplored source of pluripotent stem cell targets for cellular and gene-based fetal therapies. (Blood. 2000;96:1740-1747)
ADP-ribosyl Cyclase↗
Isolation and characterization of human CD34(-)Lin(-) and CD34(+)Lin(-) hematopoietic stem cells using cell surface markers AC133 and CD7.
Recent evidence indicates that human hematopoietic stem cell properties can be found among cells lacking CD34 and lineage commitment markers (CD34(-)Lin(-)). A major barrier in the further characterization of human CD34(-) stem cells is the inability to detect this population using in vitro assays because these cells only demonstrate hematopoietic activity in vivo. Using cell surface markers AC133 and CD7, subfractions were isolated within CD34(-)CD38(-)Lin(-) and CD34(+)CD38(-)Lin(-) cells derived from human cord blood. Although the majority of CD34(-)CD38(-)Lin(-) cells lack AC133 and express CD7, an extremely rare population of AC133(+)CD7(-) cells was identified at a frequency of 0.2%. Surprisingly, these AC133(+)CD7(-) cells were highly enriched for progenitor activity at a frequency equivalent to purified fractions of CD34(+) stem cells, and they were the only subset among the CD34(-)CD38(-)Lin(-) population capable of giving rise to CD34(+) cells in defined liquid cultures. Human cells were detected in the bone marrow of non-obese/severe combined immunodeficiency (NOD/SCID) mice 8 weeks after transplantation of ex vivo-cultured AC133(+)CD7(-) cells isolated from the CD34(-)CD38(-)Lin(-) population, whereas 400-fold greater numbers of the AC133(-)CD7(-) subset had no engraftment ability. These studies provide novel insights into the hierarchical relationship of the human stem cell compartment by identifying a rare population of primitive human CD34(-) cells that are detectable after transplantation in vivo, enriched for in vitro clonogenic capacity, and capable of differentiation into CD34(+) cells. (Blood. 2000;95:2813-2820)
AC133 Antigen↗
Bone morphogenetic proteins regulate the developmental program of human hematopoietic stem cells.
The identification of molecules that regulate human hematopoietic stem cells has focused mainly on cytokines, of which very few are known to act directly on stem cells. Recent studies in lower organisms and the mouse have suggested that bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) may play a critical role in the specification of hematopoietic tissue from the mesodermal germ layer. Here we report that BMPs regulate the proliferation and differentiation of highly purified primitive human hematopoietic cells from adult and neonatal sources. Populations of rare CD34(+)CD38(-)Lin- stem cells were isolated from human hematopoietic tissue and were found to express the BMP type I receptors activin-like kinase (ALK)-3 and ALK-6, and their downstream transducers SMAD-1, -4, and -5. Treatment of isolated stem cell populations with soluble BMP-2, -4, and -7 induced dose-dependent changes in proliferation, clonogenicity, cell surface phenotype, and multilineage repopulation capacity after transplantation in nonobese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficient (NOD/SCID) mice. Similar to transforming growth factor beta, treatment of purified cells with BMP-2 or -7 at high concentrations inhibited proliferation yet maintained the primitive CD34(+)CD38(-) phenotype and repopulation capacity. In contrast, low concentrations of BMP-4 induced proliferation and differentiation of CD34(+) CD38(-)Lin- cells, whereas at higher concentrations BMP-4 extended the length of time that repopulation capacity could be maintained in ex vivo culture, indicating a direct effect on stem cell survival. The discovery that BMPs are capable of regulating repopulating cells provides a new pathway for controlling human stem cell development and a powerful model system for studying the biological mechanism of BMP action using primary human cells.
Activin Receptors↗