The bone marrow-expressed antimicrobial cationic peptide LL-37 enhances the responsiveness of hematopoietic stem progenitor cells to an SDF-1 gradient and accelerates their engraftment after transplantation

Abstract

We report that the bone marrow stroma-released LL-37, a member of the cathelicidin family of antimicrobial peptides, primes/increases responsiveness of murine and human hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) to an α-chemokine stromal-derived factor-1 (SDF-1) gradient. Accordingly, LL-37 is upregulated in irradiated BM cells and enhances the chemotactic responsiveness of hematopoietic progenitors from all lineages to a low physiological SDF-1 gradient as well as increases their i) adhesiveness, ii) SDF-1-mediated actin polymerization, and iii) MAPKp42/44 phosphorylation. Mice transplanted with bone marrow (BM) cells ex vivo primed by LL-37 showed accelerated recovery of platelet and neutrophil counts by ~3–5 days compared to mice transplanted with unprimed control cells. These priming effects were not mediated by LL-37 binding to its receptor and depended instead on incorporation of the CXCR4 receptor into membrane lipid rafts. We propose that LL-37, which has primarily antimicrobial functions and is harmless to mammalian cells, could be clinically applied to accelerate engraftment as ex vivo priming agent for transplanted human HSPCs. This novel approach would be particularly important in cord blood transplantations, where the number of HSCs available is usually limited.