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Original Article |
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Key Words: mouse bone marrow transplantation hematopoiesis self-renewal differentiation
Competitive repopulation has revealed another age-associated feature of hematopoiesis. The repopulating activity of bone marrow cells from aged mice is higher than that of cells from young mice 10. This might be caused by qualitative and/or quantitative changes in aged HSCs as compared with young HSCs. Analyses using the binomial formula with covariance suggested that the frequency of HSCs was relatively higher in aged bone marrow cells 11. However, the mechanism by which repopulating activity rises in aged bone marrow cells remains elusive. These findings collectively argue against defective hematopoiesis in aged mice.
Our study focused on the characterization of age-associated functional changes in HSCs in mice. A twofold increase in numbers of multilineage repopulating cells from 2 to 18 mo of age was demonstrated by limiting dilution analysis with unseparated bone marrow cells. We noticed the existence of recipients in which only myeloid lineage was reconstituted at significant level among irradiated mice transplanted with a limited dose of bone marrow cells from aged mice, but not from young mice. To extend these observations, we analyzed repopulating cells at the clonal level.
We have shown that CD34–/lowc-Kit+Sca-1+ lineage marker–negative (CD34–KSL) bone marrow cells are highly enriched for HSCs 12. A population of these cells appeared to expand with age. It was shown that multilineage repopulating cell number also increased twofold among CD34–KSL cells from 2 to 18 mo of age. We thereupon found another compartment of repopulating cells, whose differentiation potential was skewed toward myeloid lineage, among aged CD34–KSL cells. Successful secondary transplantation indicated that self-renewal potential was maintained in these unusual repopulating cells. Cell cycle kinetics was taken into consideration in determining that CD34–KSL cell numbers expanded. We present an age-associated effect on hematopoiesis at the HSC level.
Analysis and Purification of CD34–KSL Cells.
Competitive Repopulation Assay.
Secondary Transplantation.
In Vivo and In Vitro Colony Assays.
Analysis of Cell Cycle.
To investigate the turnover rate of CD34–KSL cells, bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU; Sigma-Aldrich) was administered continuously to mice via drinking water. A bottle of water containing 0.5 mg/ml BrdU was changed weekly. After BrdU incorporation in vivo, CD34–KSL cells were isolated and stained with FITC-conjugated anti-BrdU (Becton Dickinson) and PI as previously described 17. The cells were analyzed on a FACS VantageTM.
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Introduction
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
Aging of individuals is defined by two criteria: increasing probability of death with age and characteristic changes in phenotype over time 1. As hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are able to self-renew and to differentiate along all hematopoietic lineages throughout the entire lifetime of an organism 2, it has been questioned whether HSCs age. Evaluation of HSC life-span has been challenged by serial transplantation. Aged bone marrow cells were able to reconstitute hematopoiesis of the recipients after multiple transfers as wells as young bone marrow cells 345. This observation was supported by a recent study showing that HSCs from young and old mice exhibited indistinguishable repopulating abilities at the clonal level 6. It has been suggested that transplantation, as a procedure, adversely affects the repopulating activity of HSCs 57. Nonetheless, it is evident that HSCs can function far longer than the life-span of their donor even if their capacity for self-renewal is limited 89.
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Materials and Methods
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
Mice and Cells.
C57BL/6 male (B6-Ly5.2) mice were purchased from Charles River Japan, Inc. Aged C57BL/6 mice were provided by Dr. K. Hirokawa (Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan). Mice congenic for the Ly5 locus (B6-Ly5.1) were bred and maintained in the University of Tsukuba Animal Research Center. The Animal Experiment Committee of the University of Tsukuba approved animal use and care. B6-Ly5.1/Ly5.2 (B6-F1) mice were obtained from mating pairs of B6-Ly5.1 and B6-Ly5.2 mice. Bone marrow cells were obtained from both right and left femora and tibiae of B6-Ly5.1 and B6-F1 male mice. Test donor cells were prepared from B6-Ly5.1 mice at 2, 6, 12, and 18 mo of age. Competitor cells were prepared from B6-F1 mice at 2 mo of age. Recipients were B6-Ly5.2 male mice aged 2 mo.
CD34–KSL cells were purified from bone marrow cells as previously described 12. In brief, cells with low density (<1.077 g/ml) were stained with an appropriate amount of biotinylated lineage–antibody mixture consisting of anti–Gr-1 (RB6-8C5), Mac-1 (M1/70), B220 (RA3-6B2), CD4 (GK1.5), CD8 (53-6.7), and Ter-119 mAbs. Lineage-positive cells were depleted with streptavidin–magnetic beads (M-280; Dynal). The cells were further stained with PE-conjugated anti–Sca-1, allophycocyanin (APC)-conjugated anti–c-Kit (ACK-2), and fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-conjugated anti-CD34 (49E8) antibodies. Biotinylated antibodies were developed with streptavidin–Texas Red (Life Technologies). All antibodies other than ACK-2 (a gift of Dr. S.I. Nishikawa, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan) were purchased from PharMingen. Four-color analysis was performed on a FACS VantageTM (Becton Dickinson) using CELLQuestTM software (Becton Dickinson). CD34–KSL cells were sorted with the counter mode. Dead cells stained with propidium iodide (PI) were excluded from analysis and sorting.
The Ly5 system was adapted to a competitive repopulation assay 13 as described 14. Unfractionated or purified bone marrow cells to be tested were mixed with 2 x 105 bone marrow cells as competitor cells and were transplanted into B6-Ly5.2 mice irradiated at a dose of 9.5 Gy. In vivo limiting dilution was performed as described 15. Three or more different numbers of test donor cells were subjected to competitive repopulation against 2 x 105 bone marrow cells. At indicated time points after transplantation, peripheral blood cells of the recipients were obtained by retroorbital bleeding and were stained with biotinylated anti-Ly5.1 (A20) and FITC-conjugated anti-Ly5.2 antibodies (104). The cells were simultaneously stained with APC-conjugated anti-B220 antibody together with a mixture of PE-conjugated anti–Mac-1 and –Gr-1 antibodies or PE-conjugated anti-CD4 and -CD8 antibodies. The cells were stained last with streptavidin–Texas Red. Four-color analysis was performed on a FACS®. The percent chimerism was calculated, based on FACS® analyses, as follows: (percent test donor–derived cells) x 100/(percent test donor–derived cells + percent competitor-derived cells). In this study, test donor cells were prepared from B6-Ly5.1 mice, and competitor cells were prepared from B6-F1 mice. Thus, percent chimerism = (percent Ly5.1 cells) x 100/(percent Ly5.1 cells + percent F1 cells). The percent chimerism for myeloid and B or T lymphoid cells was calculated using the same formula. For example, the percent chimerism for B lymphoid cells = (percent B220+ Ly5.1 cells) x 100/(percent B220+ Ly5.1 + percent B220+ F1 cells). When the percent chimerism was >1.0 in all lineages (myeloid and B and T lymphoid lineages), recipient mice were considered to be multilineage reconstituted.
Bone marrow cells from primary recipient mice were transferred into lethally irradiated B6-Ly5.2 mice (2 x 106 cells per recipient). Competition between test and competitor donor cells in secondary recipients was evaluated as in primary recipients.
CFU-S assay was performed as described 16. Purified cells were injected into lethally irradiated mice. Spleens were removed from the recipients at day 12 after transplantation. After fixation with Bouin solution, numbers of spleen colonies were counted. For in vitro colony assays, individual cells were directly sorted into a round-bottomed 96-well plate containing 10% FCS, 5 x 10–4 2-β-mercaptoethanol, 10 ng/ml mouse (m)IL-3, and 10 ng/ml mouse stem cell factor (mSCF) in
-medium. Both mIL-3 and mSCF were provided by Kirin Brewery Co., Takasaki, Japan. Colony formation was observed on day 14 of culture.
Sorted cells were fixed with 70% ethanol in water at 4°C for one night. The cells were stained with 30 µg/ml PI in staining medium containing 11.25 Kunitz units of RNase A at 37°C for 30 min. Cell cycle analyses were performed on a FACSCaliburTM (Becton Dickinson). Collected data were analyzed by ModFit LT (version 2.0; Verity Software House, Inc.).
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Results
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
Repopulating Activity in Bone Marrow Cells of Aging Mice.
We compared repopulating activity of unseparated bone marrow cells from B6 mice of different ages. Table shows the result of reconstitution analyses 24 wk after transplantation. The percentages of chimerism obtained after transplantation by bone marrow cells from mice aged 6, 12, and 18 mo were higher than those obtained by bone marrow cells from mice aged 2 mo. These data are consistent with previous observations 610. We noticed that the degree of myeloid reconstitution was significantly higher than that of B lymphoid reconstitution when bone marrow cells from mice aged 18 mo were transplanted.
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The percentages of negative mice in a logarithmic function were plotted against the number of cells transplanted (Fig. 1). According to the Poisson distribution, the frequency of competitive repopulating units 15 was estimated using the maximum likelihood 1819. 1 in 1.6 x 104 bone marrow cells was a multilineage repopulating cell in aging mice, whereas in young mice, 1 in 3.2 x 104 cells was such as a cell. As there was no significant difference in total numbers of nucleated bone marrow cells between 2 and 18 mo of age (Table ), it was concluded that the number of HSCs increased twofold from 2 to 18 mo of age.
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CD34–KSL Cells in the Bone Marrow.
We have shown that HSCs are highly enriched in a population of CD34–KSL bone marrow cells. Consistent with the previous data 12, CD34–KSL cells accounted for 0.005% of bone marrow cells at 2 mo of age. The percentage of these cells increased about 2-, 4-, and 17-fold on average by 6, 12, and 18 mo of age, respectively, as shown in Table . As the total number of bone marrow cells remained constant from 2 to 18 mo of age, the absolute number of CD34–KSL cells increased proportionally with age.
In Vivo and In Vitro Colony-forming Ability of Aged CD34–KSL Cells.
To clarify whether CD34–KSL cells that increased in number with age were functionally similar to those of young mice, colony-forming abilities of CD34–KSL cells at different ages were compared (Table ). Regardless of age, most CD34–KSL cells did not give rise to day 12 spleen colonies (CFU-Sd12), nor did these cells form in vitro colonies in the presence of IL-3 alone. However, a large proportion (70–80%) of the CD34–KSL cells formed colonies in the presence of SCF and IL-3, irrespective of age. These data indicate that expanded CD34– KSL cells in aging mice have myeloid differentiation potential similar to that of such cells in young mice.
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Secondary Transplantation of Bone Marrow Cells Repopulated with 10 CD34–KSL Cells.
We addressed whether or not defective repopulating cells still have self-renewal potential. One case with multilineage reconstitution and two cases with myeloid dominant reconstitution (Table ; mice Nos. 1, 2, and 3) were subjected to secondary transplantation. Bone marrow cells of the primary recipients were transferred into irradiated mice 16 wk after primary transplantation. The secondary recipient mice were analyzed between 12 and 16 wk after transplantation.
Table summarizes the percentages of chimerism in the secondary recipients. With mouse No. 1, high levels of reconstitution occurred in myeloid and B and T lymphoid lineages in all secondary recipients. Multilineage repopulating cells appeared to be forced to self-renew in secondary recipients.
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These data indicate the existence of repopulating cells whose differentiation potential along lymphoid lineage is reduced but whose self-renewal potential is maintained. Significant levels of lymphoid lineage reconstitution appeared in some of the mice transplanted with defective repopulating cells (mouse No. 2). This indicates that the percentage of chimerism in primary recipients shows only relative repopulating activity but not the presence or absence of repopulating activity in test donor cells. We concluded that the differentiation potential of defective HSCs was amplified into detectability when these cells were forced to self-renew by secondary transplantation.
Cell Cycle Analysis of CD34–KSL Cells.
We analyzed the cell cycle status of an expanded population of CD34–KSL cells. CD34–KSL cells isolated from mice of different ages were stained with PI and analyzed on a FACS®. As summarized in Table , 2.2, 0.8, 1.5, and 1.8% of the CD34–KSL cells were in S/G2/M phases of the cell cycle at 2, 6, 12, and 18 mo of age, respectively. Thus, at any one time, the cell cycle status of these cells was steady from 2 to 18 mo of age.
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50% of CD34–KSL cells were labeled with BrdU by day 7 of administration, whereas >80% of the lineage marker–negative cells were labeled with BrdU. However, both cell populations gradually came to be labeled with BrdU after 2 wk of administration. From the transformed data as presented in Fig. 4 B, it was estimated that the average turnover time and 50% turnover time of CD34–KSL cells was 30 and 21 d, respectively. These estimations were consistent with data obtained using rhodamine 123 low, Hoechst 33342 low cells, which have been shown to represent HSCs in the murine bone marrow 17.
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Table summarizes the kinetics of CD34–KSL cells. The absolute number of CD34–KSL cells increased
17-fold from 2 to 18 mo of age. Features of these cells at both ages were calculated based on the data presented above. The frequencies of HSCs and defective HSCs with CD34–KSL phenotype at 2 mo of age, which have been recently estimated using a single cell transplantation assay (Sudo, K., H. Ema, Y. Morita, and H. Nakauchi, manuscript in preparation), are also included in Table . Approximately 20% of the CD34–KSL cells at 2 and 18 mo of age did not show any activity in colony assays and in competitive repopulation. These cells are listed as unidentified cells.
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An important question that should be addressed is how HSCs become defective with time. It has been suggested that the length of telomeres limits a life-span of normal somatic cells 2021, including HSCs 13. Correlation of telomerase activity and self-renewal potential has been suggested for hematopoietic cells 22. Telomere length can be an indicator of replicative history for HSCs. However, aging in HSCs may be not related solely to shortening of telomeres, since, as shown in this study, aging preferentially affects the lymphoid differentiation potential of HSCs but does not affect their myeloid differentiation potential nor their self-renewal potential.
Apart from repopulating cells, the majority of expanded CD34–KSL cells were interpreted as members of a class of myeloid progenitors with in vitro colony-forming ability but without in vivo repopulating potential. However, it is possible that these cells are repopulating cells with defective homing ability, as previously suggested 6.
Consistent with a pervious report 6, the cell cycle status of CD34–KSL cells was shown to be steady from 2 to 18 mo of age. Fewer than 3% of these cells were in S/G2/M phases of the cell cycle at any point in time. However, the 50% turnover time was estimated to be only 21 d when 2-mo-old mice were studied. Our data support the notion that most HSCs continuously enter the cell cycle in a shorter interval than has been previously considered 1723. However, it remains uncertain whether CD34–KSL cells from 18-mo-old mice show cell cycle kinetics like those of young mice.
From the viewpoint of self-renewal, the properties described above can be related. We propose an aging model for HSCs. HSCs could have a certain likelihood of self-renewal via symmetric division. Most of the time, HSCs in cell cycle undergo asymmetric divisions, but sometimes symmetric rather than asymmetric division takes place under physiological conditions. Expanded HSCs may have some sort of defect in maintenance of lymphoid lineage repopulating potential and may give rise to defective HSCs, which may finally commit to myeloid progenitor cells. As a result, aged mice exhibit accumulations of HSCs, defective HSCs, and myeloid progenitors, which together form a hierarchy in a primitive hematopoietic compartment. We hope that further studies on the regulation of self-renewal of HSCs will test this hypothesis.
| Acknowledgments |
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This work was supported by grants from Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology of Japan Science and Technology Corporation and the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan.
Submitted: 9 June 2000
Revised: 24 August 2000
Accepted: 25 September 2000
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