Infection Of Bone Marrow Cells Research Articles

Humanized mice for investigating sustained Plasmodium vivax blood-stage infections and transmission

Plasmodium vivax is the most widespread human malaria parasite. Due to the presence of extravascular reservoirs and relapsing infections from dormant liver stages, P. vivax is particularly difficult to control and eliminate. Experimental research is hampered by the inability to maintain P. vivax cultures in vitro, due to its tropism for immature red blood cells (RBCs). Here, we describe a new humanized mice model that can support efficient human erythropoiesis and maintain long-lasting multiplication of inoculated cryopreserved P. vivax parasites and their sexual differentiation, including in bone marrow. Mature gametocytes were transmitted to Anopheles mosquitoes, which led to the formation of salivary gland sporozoites. Importantly, blood-stage P. vivax parasites were maintained after the secondary transfer of fresh or frozen infected bone marrow cells to naïve chimeras. This model provides a unique tool for investigating, in vivo, the biology of intraerythrocytic P. vivax.

BCR/ABL can promote CD19+ cell growth but not render them long-term stemness.

Cancer stem cells are a subpopulation of malignant cells that have the capacity of both self-renewal and reconstitution of the cancer. Eradication of cancer stem cells is crucial for curing the malignant disease. Previous studies in hematopoietic malignancies showed that leukemia stem cells (LSCs) in chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) chronic phase are originated from a hematopoietic stem cell (HSC), while LSCs in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) can either be derived from HSCs or be transformed from myeloid progenitors. But in B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), the origin of leukemia stem cells is not clear. In this study, we tested whether BCR/ABL could transform B-lineage committed CD19+ cells to LSCs. The B-cell lymphoblastic leukemia mouse model was generated by transplanting BCR/ABL-containing retrovirus infected bone marrow (BM) cells or CD19+ cells into recipient mice. In the secondary or tertiary transplantation experiment, the GFP+ cells (leukemic cells) were isolated from primary or secondary B-ALL mice. In addition, the frequency of leukemia stem cells was determined by limited dilution assay. We found that transducing BCR/ABL in CD19+ cells can promote their colony formation in vitro and induce B-ALL like disease in vivo. However, only BCR/ABL transduced whole BM cells can be transplanted multiple times in recipient mice, and the frequency of long-term LSCs from the latter ranges from 1/135 to 1/629. These studies suggest that BCR/ABL is unable to confer the long-term stemness to committed B-lymphoid progenitors and imply that CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) modified T cell therapy may not be effective in eradicating LSCs in BCR/ABL+ B-ALL.

Mycobacterium avium infection induces the resistance of the interferon-γ response in mouse spleen cells at late stages of infection.

BackgroundBacterial infections cause an increase in the population of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). To investigate the downstream factors associated with hematopoietic stem cells, mice are infected with Mycobacterium avium (M. avium).Results Mycobacterium avium (M. avium) infection induces the enlargement of the spleen and changes in histopathology, including changes to the lineage populations. A dramatic expansion of Lin−c-kit+Sca-1+ (KSL) cells in mouse bone marrow cells and spleen cells was detected 4 weeks after infection with M. avium; however, there was no difference in the engraft activity between infected and un-infected mouse bone marrow cells. We tested the cytokine and cytokine-related gene expression after M. avium infection and found that IFN-γ expression increased and peaked at 4 weeks in both bone marrow and spleen cells. The expression of Sca-1 gene peaked at 4 weeks in the bone marrow but peaked at 2 weeks in spleen cells, although the Sca-1 surface marker peaked at 4 weeks after infection in both bone marrow and spleen cells. Interferon regulatory factor-2 (IRF-2) expression did not change in the bone marrow cells, whereas it decreased in spleen cells at 4 weeks and IRF-1 expression was up-regulated in both bone marrow and spleen cells after infection. However, the up-regulation of IRF-1 was not correlated with IFN-γ expression in the M. avium-infected mouse spleen cells.ConclusionsThis finding suggests that the IFN-γ production mediated by M. avium infection alters the population of KSL cells during host defense, and the down-regulation of the IFN-γ response in spleen cells occurs at the late stage after M. avium infection.

Spatiotemporal dynamics of simian immunodeficiency virus brain infection in CD8+ lymphocyte-depleted rhesus macaques with neuroAIDS.

Despite the success of combined antiretroviral therapy in controlling viral replication in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individuals, HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders, commonly referred to as neuroAIDS, remain a frequent and poorly understood complication. Infection of CD8(+) lymphocyte-depleted rhesus macaques with the SIVmac251 viral swarm is a well-established rapid disease model of neuroAIDS that has provided critical insight into HIV-1-associated neurocognitive disorder onset and progression. However, no studies so far have characterized in depth the relationship between intra-host viral evolution and pathogenesis in this model. Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) env gp120 sequences were obtained from six infected animals. Sequences were sampled longitudinally from several lymphoid and non-lymphoid tissues, including individual lobes within the brain at necropsy, for four macaques; two animals were sacrificed at 21 days post-infection (p.i.) to evaluate early viral seeding of the brain. Bayesian phylodynamic and phylogeographic analyses of the sequence data were used to ascertain viral population dynamics and gene flow between peripheral and brain tissues, respectively. A steady increase in viral effective population size, with a peak occurring at ~50-80 days p.i., was observed across all longitudinally monitored macaques. Phylogeographic analysis indicated continual viral seeding of the brain from several peripheral tissues throughout infection, with the last migration event before terminal illness occurring in all macaques from cells within the bone marrow. The results strongly supported the role of infected bone marrow cells in HIV/SIV neuropathogenesis. In addition, our work demonstrated the applicability of Bayesian phylogeography to intra-host studies in order to assess the interplay between viral evolution and pathogenesis.

Hepatitis C and neutropenia

This review describes the pathogenesis and therapeutic implications of neutropenia in patients with hepatitis C. Mild-to-moderate neutropenia is increasingly recognized as the hepatitis C population has caused increased cirrhosis. Multiple mechanisms for the neutropenia have been postulated, with recent evidence pointing toward a combination of hypersplenism, autoimmunity, and direct viral infection of bone marrow cells. Advances in antiviral therapy are associated with worsened neutropenia and dose modification. Severe neutropenia is underreported and is generally not associated with increased rates of infection. Although neutropenia is common in hepatitis C patients it generally has a benign course and may not prohibit antiviral therapy.

Role Of Insulin Like Growth Factor mRNA Binding Protein-3 (IGF2BP3) In Mixed Lineage Leukemia (MLL) Positive B-Cell Lymphomas

Oncogenic transformation of early B-cell progenitors leads to the human disease of B-acute lymphoblastic leukemia or B-ALL, which affects both children and adults. Among the different subtypes of B-ALL, defined by particular cytogenetic anomalies, there are two which are difficult to treat and have a dismal prognosis. These are B-ALL with chromosomal translocation t (9; 22)/BCR-ABL and MLL gene rearrangements, which show distinctive gene expression profiles.Gene expression is now known to be significantly regulated by post-transcriptional mechanisms. These involve RNA binding proteins and microRNAs. Deregulation of microRNAs as well as RNA binding protein expression is associated with numerous cancers. Here, we hypothesized that RNA binding proteins may be important in regulating gene expression in MLL rearranged leukemias.To examine this hypothesis, we undertook a microarray study examining the expression of both protein-coding and non-coding genes in B-ALL, including MLL translocations. A total of 44 samples were used for the microarray. Supervised class prediction was carried out using the R library of prediction analysis for microarrays (PAM). One of the most significantly differentially expressed genes was Insulin Like Growth Factor mRNA Binding Protein-3 (IGF2BP3). The expression of IGF2BP3 was highest in the MLL rearranged B-ALL group. IGF2BP3 is an oncofetal protein known to be highly expressed in a number of epithelial malignancies such as glioblastomas. IGF2BP3 has been known to bind to the 5'-UTR and stabilize mRNAs like CD44 the expression of which correlates with epithelial tumors metastasis. IGF2BP3 has been shown to bind to the Insulin like Growth Factor-2 (IGF-2) mRNA and enhance translation in glioblastomas.We confirmed the expression of IGF2BP3 and CD44 in these 44 tumor samples and 90 other B-cell lymphoma samples by RT-qPCR. This corroborated with our previous data showing that the expression of both these genes is significantly higher in the group with MLL translocations. In the MLL rearranged leukemias, there was a significant correlation between the expression of CD44 and IGF2BP3. Interestingly however, there was no significant difference in the expression of IGF2 mRNA between these different subsets, indicating either that IGF2BP3 might be acting on IGF-2 mRNA at the translational level or that IGF-2 regulation may be cell-type specific.To evaluate whether IGF2BP3 affects the growth of B-ALL cells, we used NALM6, a B-ALL cell line which expresses IGF2BP3. We generated microRNA-155 formatted siRNAs against human IGF2BP3 and subcloned them into pHAGE6 based lentiviral vectors. Our preliminary data demonstrates that these vectors are capable of knocking down IGF2BP3 in the NALM6 cell line. In addition, cells with knockdown showed a dramatic decrease in their growth rates, as measured by the MTS assay.The IGF-2 paracrine signaling system is thought to be important in the maintenance of HSCs as well as in lymphocyte development. We separated different precursors of B-cells (Hardy fractions) from murine bone marrow using FACS and measured the mRNA expression of CD44 and IGF2BP3 in these different subsets. The expression of both these genes correlated well with each other and showed a dynamic expression pattern with the highest expression seen in the Hardy Fraction C (late pro-B cells). This indicates that the IGF2BP3/CD44 axis might play a role in regulating normal B-cell development and this may be dysregulated in MLL-translocated B-ALL.To examine whether IGF2BP3 overexpression causes leukemia, we cloned the murine and human IGF2BP3 coding regions in a murine retroviral expression vector, MIG (MSCV-IGF2BP3-IRES-GFP). Retroviral packaging was done using 293T cell line, virus was collected and used to infect 7Oz/3, a murine pre-B ALL cell line. Western blot and qPCR confirmed overexpression of IGF2BP3. We have infected bone marrow cells from CD 45.2 positive wild type donor mice with the virus and transferred them into irradiated CD 45.1 recipient mice. We have confirmed engraftment in these mice using flowcytometry for CD 45.1/2 and are presently following the mice for the development of leukemia.In summary, IGF2BP3 is dysregulated in MLL-rearranged leukemia, and its knockdown can cause decreased growth rates in B-ALL cell lines. The current study explores whether IGF2BP3 is oncogenic and the mechanisms of action of IGF2BP3 in B-cell development and neoplasia. Disclosures:No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Desensitization of the P2Y1 receptor in platelets

Understanding thrombosis is critical for effective treatment of patients at risk for heart attack and stroke. Simultaneous activation of the Gq‐coupled P2Y1 receptor and the Gi‐coupled P2Y12 receptor is required for ADP‐promoted platelet aggregation— deletion or inhibition of either receptor results in the loss of ADP‐induced aggregation. Unlike the P2Y12 receptor, the P2Y1 receptor in both mouse and human platelets undergoes profound and rapid desensitization in response to sub‐aggregating levels of ADP. We hypothesize that this rapid inactivation is specific to the P2Y1 receptor and is physiologically relevant for proper regulation of platelet hemostasis. To test the specificity of desensitization, we compared the rate of desensitization after agonist addition of the 5HT2A and TxA2 receptors, which are also Gq‐coupled, to that of the P2Y1 receptor. These data reveal that only the P2Y1 receptor rapidly desensitizes in response to its cognate agonist. To determine the residue(s) responsible for P2Y1 desensitization, we transplanted retrovirally infected bone marrow cells expressing P2Y1 receptor Ser/Thr mutants into P2Y1−/− mice to examine the desensitization of the P2Y1 receptor ex vivo. These mice will also be used to examine the physiological consequences of expressing a non‐desensitizing P2Y1 receptor by measuring thrombus formation in vivo in response to arterial vessel wall injury.(Supported by NIH grant HL54889)

IFN-α Treatment Inhibits Acute Friend Retrovirus Replication Primarily through the Antiviral Effector Molecule Apobec3

Therapeutic administration of IFN-α in clinical trials significantly reduced HIV-1 plasma viral load and human T-lymphotropic virus type I proviral load in infected patients. The mechanism may involve the concerted action of multiple antiretroviral effectors collectively known as "restriction factors," which could vary in relative importance according to the magnitude of transcriptional induction. However, direct genetic approaches to identify the relevant IFN-α restriction factors will not be feasible in humans in vivo. Meanwhile, mice encode an analogous set of restriction factor genes and could be used to obtain insights on how IFN-α could inhibit retroviruses in vivo. As expected, IFN-α treatment of mice significantly upregulated the transcription of multiple restriction factors including Tetherin/BST2, SAMHD1, Viperin, ISG15, OAS1, and IFITM3. However, a dominant antiretroviral factor, Apobec3, was only minimally induced. To determine whether Apobec3 was necessary for direct IFN-α antiretroviral action in vivo, wild-type and Apobec3-deficient mice were infected with Friend retrovirus, then treated with IFN-α. Treatment of infected wild-type mice with IFN-α significantly reduced acute plasma viral load 28-fold, splenic proviral load 5-fold, bone marrow proviral load 14-fold, and infected bone marrow cells 7-fold, but no inhibition was observed in Apobec3-deficient mice. These findings reveal that IFN-α inhibits acute Friend retrovirus infection primarily through the antiviral effector Apobec3 in vivo, demonstrate that transcriptional induction levels did not predict the mechanism of IFN-α-mediated control, and highlight the potential of the human APOBEC3 proteins as therapeutic targets against pathogenic retrovirus infections.

Bone marrow-derived microglia-based neurturin delivery protects against dopaminergic neurodegeneration in a mouse model of Parkinson's disease

Although neurotrophic factors have long been recognized as potent agents for protecting against neuronal degeneration, clinical success in treating Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders has been hindered by difficulties in delivery of trophic factors across the blood brain barrier (BBB). Bone marrow hematopoietic stem cell-based gene therapy is emerging as a promising tool for overcoming drug delivery problems, as myeloid cells can cross the BBB and are recruited in large numbers to sites of neurodegeneration, where they become activated microglia that can secrete trophic factors. We tested the efficacy of bone marrow-derived microglial delivery of neurturin (NTN) in protecting dopaminergic neurons against neurotoxin-induced death in mice. Bone marrow cells were transduced ex vivo with lentivirus expressing the NTN gene driven by a synthetic macrophage-specific promoter. Infected bone marrow cells were then collected and transplanted into recipient animals. Eight weeks after transplantation, the mice were injected with the neurotoxin 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropuridine (MPTP) for seven days to induce dopaminergic neurodegeneration. Microglia-mediated NTN delivery dramatically ameliorated MPTP-induced degeneration of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-positive neurons of the substantia nigra and their terminals in the striatum. Microglia-mediated NTN delivery also induced significant recovery of synaptic marker staining in the striatum of MPTP-treated animals. Functionally, NTN treatment restored MPTP-induced decline in general activity, rearing behavior, and food intake. Thus, bone marrow-derived microglia can serve as cellular vehicles for sustained delivery of neurotrophic factors capable of mitigating dopaminergic injury.

Inhibition of Sphk1 Activity in Erythrocytes Ameliorating the Pathophysiology of Sickle Cell Disease

AbstractAbstract 822Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a genetic hemolytic disease with high morbidity and mortality affecting millions of individuals worldwide. Although SCD was identified a century ago, we still lack effective mechanism-based therapies to treat this disease. Using non-biased metabolomic screening, we found that sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) is significantly elevated in the blood of SCD mice. Further analysis revealed that the activity of sphingosine kinase 1 (Sphk1, the enzyme that produces S1P) is significantly elevated in erythrocytes of SCD mice. Chronic treatment of SCD mice with a SphK1 inhibitor significantly attenuated sickling, hemolysis, inflammation and multiple tissue damage by reducing erythrocyte and plasma S1P levels. Erythrocyte S1P levels were further elevated following hypoxia/reoxygenation-induced acute sickle crisis (ASC) in SCD mice and blocking its elevation by a Sphk1 specific inhibitor significantly reduced hallmark features associated with ASC and increased survival rates. To extend our pharmacological findings, we utilized a genetic approach to inhibit the synthesis of Sphk1 specifically in hematopoietic cells (HCs). For this purpose we infected bone marrow cells (BMCs) isolated from SCD mice with recombinant lentivirus encoding shRNA specific for Sphk1 or a scrambled shRNA sequence. Following viral transduction, we transplanted the genetically modified BMCs from SCD mice to lethally irradiated WT recipients to generate SCD chimeras. Similarly, we found that knockdown of SphK1 by shRNA in SCD chimeras led to a significant reduction of erythrocyte and plasma S1P and subsequent decreased sickling, hemolysis and inflammatory cells. Strikingly, we found that splenomegaly was substantially reduced in SCD chimera mice with the specific knockdown of SphK1 in hematopoietic cells. As with SCD mice, we found that erythrocyte Sphk1 activity and erythrocyte and plasma S1P levels were significantly elevated in humans with SCD compared to normal individuals. Inhibition of SphK1 in cultured primary human erythrocytes isolated from SCD patients inhibited hypoxia-induced elevation of erythrocyte S1P levels and reduced sickling. Thus, we have revealed for the first time that SphK1-mediated S1P elevation in SCD erythrocytes is a key contributor to sickling in SCD and that Sphk1 inhibition can attenuate both acute and chronic sickling events and disease progression. In an effort to determine the molecular mechanism underlying S1P-induced sickling, we unexpectedly found that S1P directly binds with Hb and results in a reduced Hb-O2 affinity. This finding led us to further discover that 2,3-diphosphoglycerate, another erythrocyte specific allosteric modulator, is required for S1P-mediated allosteric modulation and that these two endogenous heterotropic modulators work cooperatively to induce a substantial reduction in Hb-O2 affinity. Thus, our discovery adds a significant new chapter to erythrocyte physiology by revealing S1P is a novel allosteric modulator of Hb-O2 affinity and also provides a mechanism underlying S1P-mediated sickling by promoting the formation of deoxyHbS. Thus, the work reported here could be the foundation leading to future human trials and a possible therapy for SCD, a life-threatening hemolytic disorder for which the current treatment is extremely limited. Disclosures:No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Infection of bone marrow cells by dengue virus in vivo

Abnormal bone marrow (BM) suppression is one of the hallmarks of dengue virus (DENV) infection in patients. Although the etiology remains unclear, direct viral targeting of the BM has been reasoned to be a contributing factor. The present studies were carried out in an effort to determine the potential effect of DENV infection on the cellularity of BM using a previously established nonhuman primate model of DENV-induced coagulopathy. BM aspirates were collected at various times from the infected nonhuman primate and cells were phenotypically defined and isolated using standard flow cytometry (fluorescence-activated cell sorting). These isolated cells were subjected to detection of DENV utilizing quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, electron microscopy, and immunostaining techniques. DENV RNA was detectable by quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction in BM specimens and the presence of DENV-like particles within platelet was confirmed by electron microscopy. Enumeration of BM cells revealed a transient surge in cellularity at day 1, followed by a gradual decline from days 2 to 10 post infection. Detailed phenotypic studies showed similar kinetics in the frequencies of CD41(+)CD61(+) cells, regardless of CD34 and CD45 expression. The CD61(+) cells were not only the predominant cells that stained for DENV antigen but fluorescence-activated cell sorting-assisted isolation of CD61(+) cells from the BM were shown to contain infectious DENV by coculture with Vero cells. These data support the view that intravenous infection of nonhuman primate with DENV leads to direct infection of the BM, which is likely to be a contributing factor for transient cell suppression in the peripheral blood characteristic of acute DENV infection.

Gpx3 Determines Competitiveness of Normal and Leukemic Stem Cells.

AbstractAbstract 1587Although important efforts have been invested in the discovery of genes that regulate normal or leukemic hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) self-renewal, the number of validated candidates remains low, due largely to the unavailability of functionally pure stem cell populations. Moreover, it is often difficult to identify the normal counterpart cell from which leukemia originated, further complicating studies based on comparative gene expression. In this study, we used a series of recently characterized Hoxa9 + Meis1 acute myeloid leukemias (AML) derived from fetal liver (FL) cells (Wilhelm BT et al., submitted). These leukemias are remarkably similar in several aspects including their L-HSC frequency (between ∼1 in 100 to 350) except for one leukemia (FLA2) in which 70% of the cells show repopulation ability (i.e., L-HSC).We reasoned that comparative mRNA profiling of FLA2 to the phenotypically similar FLB1 (0.3% L-HSC) might identify genes uniquely associated with L-HSC self-renewal. We observed a 2–3-fold upregulation of Gpx3 in FLA2, which was confirmed by qRT-PCR. In accordance with this, all 14 of the tested Gpx3 promoter region CpG sequences were methylated in FLB1 and hypomethylated in FLA2 cells. The higher expression of GPx3 in FLA2 was confirmed at the protein level and reflected in elevated glutathione peroxidase activity in comparison to FLB1. Importantly, we also observed in FLA2 a relative reduction in reactive oxygen species (ROS) level (DCFDA) and a concomitant decrease in p38 MAPK activation (western blot and mass spectrometry). The correlation of Gpx3 levels with L-HSC frequency could be reflective of their functional dependence on this enzyme. FLA2 cells being difficult to manipulate ex vivo, to address this we utilized retroviruses encoding shRNAs and a GFP reporter to explore the in vivo function of FLA2 cells with downregulated Gpx3. The decrease in percentage of GFP+ donor cells when leukemia became apparent (∼19 days) from that of populations initially transplanted, was 4-fold higher following Gpx3 knockdown in comparison to shLuciferase transduction. Moreover, those shGpx3 infected FLA2 remaining at day 19 displayed a 3-fold decrease in GFP mean fluorescence intensity relative to their control counterparts. These results show that GFPhigh cells were selectively depleted, and suggest that Gpx3 is critical for the competitiveness of L-HSCs.Because redox metabolism has been implicated in HSC self-renewal, we also analyzed its expression and function in normal HSC to gain further insight into the role of GPx3 in stem cell activity. Interestingly, compared to FL-HSCs, isolated 3 and 4 week bone marrow (BM), HSCs exhibited a 39- and 6-fold decrease in Gpx3 expression, respectively. A correlation of Gpx3 levels with enhanced self-renewal was also observed in vitro as overexpression of several nuclear determinants of HSC expansion such as Hoxb4, NA10HD, Klf10 and Prdm16 promoted Gpx3 expression by 3.2 to 19.2-fold. We next infected BM cells enriched for HSCs with retroviruses carrying shRNAs to Gpx3. shRNA targeting of Gpx3 dramatically inhibited hematopoietic reconstitution. Transplantations of sublethally irradiated recipients indicated that Gpx3 knockdown significantly impaired both early and late donor-derived hematopoiesis. These results suggest that GPx3 is critical for repopulation mediated by both short and long-term repopulating cells. In reciprocal gain-of-function experiments, Lin-CD150+CD48- cells engineered to overexpress Gpx3, showed a marked competitive advantage over controls when transplanted following a 7-day ex vivo culture step. Insertional mutagenesis was ruled out as proviral integration analyses of six recipients confirmed polyclonal hematopoiesis. Moreover, some mice were in part reconstituted by the same clones, indicating that self-renewal occurred in vitro prior to transplantation. Phenotypic analysis of late-transplant hematopoietic tissues showed that Gpx3-transduced cells contributed to lymphoid and myeloid repopulation, confirming their multipotentiality. Together, these results indicate that Gpx3 enhances HSC expansion ex vivo possibly through modulation of self-renewal activity.In conclusion, a unique model of primary L-HSC was exploited to identify Gpx3 as a critical determinant for the competitiveness of L-HSCs and complementary experiments demonstrated a key role for this gene in normal HSC self-renewal. Disclosures:No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Oncogenic E17K mutation in the pleckstrin homology domain of AKT1 promotes v-Abl-mediated pre-B-cell transformation and survival of Pim-deficient cells

Abl-mediated transformation requires the activation of multiple pathways involved in the cellular proliferation and survival, including PI3K/AKT and JAK/STAT-dependent Pim kinases. Recently, the E17K mutation in the AKT1 has been associated with multiple human malignancies and leukemia in mice. However, this mutation has not been identified in Abl-transformed cells. We investigated the presence of the AKT1(E17K) mutation in v-Abl-transformed cell clones. AKT1(E17K) was detected in 3 (2.6%) of 116 specimens examined. To show the involvement of AKT1(E17K) directly in v-Abl-mediated tumorigenesis, we infected bone marrow cells from mice with bicistronic retroviruses encoding v-Abl and either wild-type or the mutant AKT1. Interestingly, we found that E17K mutant greatly increased the v-Abl transformation efficiency as compared with wild-type AKT1. Ectopic expression of E17K mutant increased the expression levels of antiapoptotic protein BCL2 and phosphorylation levels of proapoptotic protein BAD. This correlated with an increased protection from imatinib-induced apoptosis in Abl transformants. Furthermore, AKT1(E17K) promotes survival of the Pim-deficient cells, indicating a functional link between AKT and Pim in v-Abl transformation. In addition, AKT1(E17K) delays loss of Pim-1 and Pim-2 protein levels on v-Abl inactivation, which suggests that there exists reciprocal signaling between AKT and Pim in v-Abl transformants.

Extrinsic signals determine myeloid-erythroid lineage switch in MN1 leukemia

Transcriptional control of hematopoietic lineage fate relies on the integration of many intra- and extracellular signals. To test whether the microenvironment impacts on leukemic phenotype, we exploited the MN1 model of acute myeloid leukemia under defined genetically modified microenvironmental conditions. The requirement of both FLT3 and c-Kit signaling for MN1 leukemias was investigated using retroviral infection of bone marrow cells from wild-type, c-Kit-mutated (W41), and Flt3-ligand knockout cells, and bone marrow transplantation into wild-type, c-Kit-mutated, or Flt3-ligand knockout mice. Genetic disruption of both FLT3 and c-Kit signaling in the MN1-leukemia model was dispensable for MN1-induced leukemogenesis. However, it induced a switch from myeloid to erythroid phenotype that was preserved, when FLT3 signaling was restored by secondary transplantation of leukemic cells into wild-type recipients. Our findings underscore the importance of microenvironmental signals for lineage choice in leukemia and identify signals that are important in myeloid-erythroid lineage decisions.

Prevalence of hematological abnormalities and detection of infected bone marrow cells in asymptomatic cats with feline immunodeficiency virus infection

Peripheral blood cytopenia such as anemia, leukopenia with neutropenia and thrombocytopenia is frequently observed in cats infected with feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV). Although previous studies report that cytopenia has been observed in FIV-infected symptomatic cats, yet the asymptomatic cats also present cytopenia occasionally. In the present study, hematological and virological analyses in FIV-infected asymptomatic cats were carried out to understand the prevalence and pathogenesis of peripheral blood cytopenia in FIV infection. Hematological abnormalities were detected in 24 of 50 FIV-infected asymptomatic cats (48%) in which no other cause of cytopenia than FIV infection was observed. Anemia only, neutropenia only, thrombocytopenia only, bicytopenia and pancytopenia were observed in 10%, 10%, 6%, 14% and 8%, respectively. Bone marrow (BM) examination was performed in 8 FIV-infected asymptomatic cats with peripheral blood cytopenia. Myeloid dysplasia was observed in 4 cats with neutropenia of which 2 cats with concurrent thrombocytopenia presented morphological abnormalities of megakaryocytes. FIV-infected BM cells in the 8 cats were analyzed by PCR and immunocytochemistry. Lobulated mononuclear cells in BM were infected with FIV in 5 cats with neutropenia of which 2 cats with concurrent thrombocytopenia showed FIV-infected megakaryocytes. Parts of isolated stromal cells from BM were infected with FIV in all the 8 cats. Present results suggest that FIV infection of BM cells can cause peripheral blood cytopenia and myelodysplasia even if the cat is asymptomatic. Such FIV-related hematological abnormalities are supposed to be diagnosed as FIV-myelopathy.

A Chromatin-Associated Histone H3 Dementhylase Promotes the Immortalization of MEFs and the Cycling of HSC-Like Cells in Culture.

A common integration site, cloned from MoMuLV-induced rat T cell lymphomas was mapped immediately upstream of Ndy1, a gene expressed primarily in ES cells, hematopoietic stem cells, testis, spleen and thymus. Ndy1 encodes a chromatin-associated nuclear protein. Ndy1 and its homolog Ndy2, which is also a target of provirus integration in retrovirus-induced lymphomas, encode proteins that were recently shown to possess JmjC-dependent histone H3 demethylase activity. Mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEFs) engineered to express Ndy1 or Ndy2 undergo immortalization in the absence of replicative senescence via a JmjC domain-dependent process. Knock down of endogenous Ndy1 or expression of JmjC domain mutants of Ndy1 promotes senescence, suggesting that Ndy1 is a physiological inhibitor of senescence in dividing cells. Infection of bone marrow cells with a high titer MigR1/Ndy1 retrovirus led to the reproducible isolation of immortalized cultures that have the phenotypic characteristics of hematopoietic stem cells. We conclude that Ndy-mediated demethylation of histone H3, promotes cell immortalization, oncogenesis and the cycling of stem cells.

NPM-ALK Induces Tumour Development in a Murine Model of Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (ALCL) Independently of Bcl-3 Expression.

Anaplastic large cell lymphomas (ALCLs) define a subgroup of aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. In 40–60% of systemic ALCLs, a t(2;5) (p23;q35) translocation is found, which generates a fusion gene between nucleophosmin (NPM) and the receptor tyrosine kinase gene ALK (anaplastic lymphoma kinase). The NPM-ALK chimeric gene encodes a constitutively activated tyrosine kinase and is believed to initiate the process of lymphomagenesis. Since NPM-ALK has been shown to activate PI3-kinase and STAT3, proteins that are involved in apoptosis regulation, altered apoptosis might contribute to ALCL development. Bcl-3, which exerts an anti-apoptotic effect in B and T lymphocytes, has been reported to be up regulated in a subgroup of ALCLs. This raised the question whether Bcl-3 is required for tumour development induced by NPM-ALK. In a first set of experiments, the expression levels of Bcl-3 in NPM-ALK negative and NPM-ALK positive tumour cells were analysed. Bcl-3 expression was enhanced in NPM-ALK expressing cells compared to NPM-ALK negative cells or cells expressing a kinase dead NPM-ALK mutant. Next we used primary murine bone marrow cells from wt versus Bcl-3 −/− mice in order to clarify the contribution of Bcl-3 to NPM-ALK induced transformation. We employed a retroviral infection system utilizing a MCSV-based vector co-expressing NPM-ALK together with the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) via an internal ribosomal entry site to infect Bcl-3−/− and wild type (wt) bone marrow cells. Transformation of bone marrow cells was analysed by methylcellulose assay without cytokines. Transformation of NPM-ALK infected Bcl-3−/− bone marrow cells was comparable to NPM-ALK infected BL6 wt bone marrow cells. No colony formation was detectable after transfection of Bcl-3−/− bone marrow with empty vector as control. Finally, we utilized a murine transplantation model of ALCL. Lethally irradiated BL6 wt mice were transplanted with retrovirally NPM-ALK infected wild type or Bcl-3−/− bone marrow cells. As a control, BL6 wt mice received a transplant of Bcl-3−/− bone marrow cells infected with supernatant from viral producer cells transfected with empty vector. Mice transplanted with NPM-ALK infected wild type or Bcl-3−/− bone marrow cells rapidly died within a median survival time of 16 and 17 days respectively, whereas mice transplanted with Bcl-3 −/− bone marrow cells transfected with empty vector survived healthy for more than 300 days. Diseased mice macroscopically showed involvement of the spleen, predominantly. Histologically, spleens of diseased mice showed an extensive infiltration of ALK-positive tumour cells with proliferation of large histiocytic cells both in mice transplanted with NPM-ALK infected Bcl-3−/− and wild type bone marrow. In both groups, FACS-analysis revealed a high percentage of EGFP positive and thus NPM-ALK positive cells in bone marrow and spleen. In conclusion, NPM-ALK is able to transform bone marrow cells and to induce a lymphoma-like disease in the absence of Bcl-3. Bcl-3 is thus dispensable for ALCL development in a murine mouse model. Lack of Bcl-3 in the knockout mice may be compensated by the expression of other proteins. Therefore, Bcl-3 upregulation in a subgroup of human ALCLs may be not critical for lymphoma development.

The MLL PHD Fingers of MLL Block MLL Fusion Protein Mediated Transformation.

Mixed Lineage Leukemia (MLL) is a histone H3K4 methyltransferase that is rearranged in both acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL). MLL is required for the maintenance of Hox gene expression. Deregulation of Hox genes by MLL fusion proteins, which fuse MLL in frame to one of over 50 different translocation partners, is critical for transformation. In these translocations, the DNMT homology (CXXC) domain is always included, but the set of adjacent plant homeodomains (PHD), which includes four PHD fingers and a bromodomain, is invariably excluded. PHD fingers have recently been described to bind tri-methylated histone H3K4 and others report PHD domains binding transcriptional co-repressors, such as Mi-2a of the NuRD complex. However, the role of the PHD fingers in MLL is not well understood. To determine the function of the PHD fingers in MLL, we performed bone marrow transduction and colony assays with the MLL fusion protein MLL-AF9, engineered to contain the PHD domain region (MLL-PHD-AF9). These experiments showed that inclusion of the PHD fingers inhibited immortalization as shown by the absence of compact colonies in methylcellulose replating assays and inhibition of proliferation in liquid cultures. Initial experiments with PHD finger deletions to map the inhibiting activity suggest inclusion of any PHD fingers beyond the first PHD finger, results in inhibition of transformation. To monitor the transcriptional activity of the retrovirally infected bone marrow cells, total RNA was isolated from cells harvested after the second replating, when significant differences were seen in colony morphology and size. Consistent with the transformation inhibition, Hoxa9 gene expression was found to be significantly repressed with respect to expression detected in transformed MLL-AF9 cells as determined by qPCR. To confirm this effect is directly due to the MLL fusion proteins, we performed luciferase assays with an MLL responsive myc E-box luciferase construct in MLL −/− MEFs. We found a specific and robust activation of the reporter in the presence of MLL-AF9, which was severely compromised by the inclusion of the PHD fingers. Together, these results suggest the PHD fingers act as transcriptional repressors that inhibit transformation. Our results provide an explanation for the finding that translocations including the coding region for C terminal PHD fingers do not occur in human leukemias and suggest that this region is also involved in the regulation of wild type MLL. We are currently studying the mechanisms of transcriptional repression mediated by the PHD fingers by isolating interacting proteins and assessing their effect on transcription and transformation.

Oncogenic NRAS, KRAS, and HRAS Induce Distinct Hematological Diseases in Mice.

RAS family proteins (NRAS, HRAS and KRAS 4B/4A) are small GTPases that play a central role in transducing signals that regulate cell proliferation, survival and differentiation. The RAS proteins interact with a common set of activators and effectors and, therefore, share many biochemical and biological functions. However, the RAS proteins associate with different microdomains of the plasma membrane as well as other internal cell membranes and are capable of generating distinct signal outputs. Mutations that result in constitutive activation of RAS proteins are associated with approximately 30% of all human cancers, including 20–30% acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and 50–70% chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML). Different RAS oncogenes are preferentially associated with different types of human cancer. In myeloid malignancies, NRAS mutations occur (in approximately 70% of cases), more frequently than KRAS mutations, while HRAS mutations are rare. The mechanism underlying the different frequencies of RAS isoforms mutated in myeloid leukemia is not known. One possibility is that oncogenic RAS proteins have different leukemogenic potentials. To test this possibility, we compared the ability of the three oncogenic RAS proteins to induce leukemias using the same animal model. We have shown previously that oncogenic NRAS rapidly and efficiently induces CMML- or AML-like disease in an improved mouse bone marrow transduction and transplantation model. We found here that in the same model system, oncogenic KRAS invariably induces a CMML-like disease that is similar to what has been shown in a mouse conditional knock in model for oncogenic KRAS. Surprisingly, all mice receiving oncogenic HRAS infected bone marrow cells develop an AML-like disease. The HRAS mice have the shortest disease latency, followed by NRAS and then KRAS. HRAS induced disease also appears to be more aggressive than N or KRAS and is usually accompanied by massive pulmonary infiltration and hemorrhages. These studies demonstrate that all three RAS oncogenes have the potential to induce myeloid leukemias, yet have distinct leukemogenic potentials. The underlying mechanism of the discrepancy between the frequency of HRAS mutation in human myeloid leukemia and its leukemogenic potential in mice is not clear, but the models established here provide a system for further studying the molecular mechanisms in the pathogenesis of myeloid malignancies and for testing targeted therapies.

Expression of Measles Virus Nucleocapsid Protein in Osteoclasts Induces Paget's Disease-Like Bone Lesions in Mice

We targeted the MVNP gene to the OCL lineage in transgenic mice. These mice developed abnormal OCLs and bone lesions similar to those found in Paget's patients. These results show that persistent expression of MVNP in OCLs can induce pagetic-like bone lesions in vivo. Paget's disease (PD) of bone is the second most common bone disease. Both genetic and viral factors have been implicated in its pathogenesis, but their exact roles in vivo are unclear. We previously reported that transfection of normal human osteoclast (OCL) precursors with the measles virus nucleocapsid (MVNP) or measles virus (MV) infection of bone marrow cells from transgenic mice expressing a MV receptor results in formation of pagetic-like OCLs. Based on these in vitro studies, we determined if the MVNP gene from either an Edmonston-related strain of MV or a MVNP gene sequence derived from a patient with PD (P-MVNP), when targeted to cells in the OCL lineage of transgenic mice with the TRACP promoter (TRACP/MVNP mice), induced changes in bone similar to those found in PD. Bone marrow culture studies and histomorphometric analysis of bones from these mice showed that their OCLs displayed many of the features of pagetic OCLs and that they developed bone lesions that were similar to those in patients with PD. Furthermore, IL-6 seemed to be required for the development of the pagetic phenotype in OCLs from TRACP/MVNP mice. These results show that persistent expression of the MVNP gene in cells of the OCL lineage can induce pagetic-like bone lesions in vivo.