Murine Marrow-derived Stromal Cell Line Research Articles

Cell density-dependent proliferation of the murine bone marrow-derived stromal cell lines

Proliferation of three murine marrow-derived stromal cell lines, LC1, LC2, and LC3, depended on initial cell density. For LC2 and LC3, the cell density-dependence was negated by conditioned-media, indicating growth dependence on a soluble growth factor. For LC1, conditioned-media failed to stimulate proliferation, suggesting growth dependence on direct cell-cell contact.

Hydrocortisone Differentially Affects the Ability of Murine Stromal Cells and Human Marrow-Derived Adherent Cells to Promote the Differentiation of CD34++/CD38– Long-Term Culture-Initiating Cells

Very primitive human hematopoietic progenitor cells are identified indirectly by their ability to give rise to clonogenic progenitors in the presence of either human or murine stromal cells. These long-term culture-initiating cell (LTC-IC) assays are usually performed in the presence of hydrocortisone based on the initial observation that hydrocortisone was required for prolonged hematopoiesis in standard long-term bone marrow cultures. In this report, we investigated the role of hydrocortisone in LTC-IC assays initiated with CD34++/CD38- cells seeded onto either human bone marrow LTC-derived adherent cells or a murine marrow-derived stromal cell line, MS-5. It was found that weekly addition of hydrocortisone to the cultures reduced the frequency of LTC-IC (from 1/5 to 1/20) calculated from limiting dilution experiments and also reduced fivefold to 10-fold the number of their progeny clonogenic cells detected after 4 to 5 weeks. In contrast, the frequency and differentiative potential of CD34++/CD38- grown in the presence of human marrow feeders was unaltered by the addition of glucocorticoids. Data are consistent with the hypothesis that hydrocortisone inhibited LTC-IC differentiation by downregulating the expression of a synergistic factor produced by MS-5 cells. (1) In the absence of hydrocortisone, the number of clonogenic progenitors generated by LTC-IC was much higher in cultures seeded on MS-5 than in cultures seeded on human marrow adherent cells, which was also true when cytokines were added to the cocultures. However, based on the phenotype of the colonies, progenitors produced in MS-5 cocultures were more mature than those generated on human marrow adherent cells. (2) Hydrocortisone counteracted the stimulatory effect of recombinant human cytokines (interleukin-3, interleukin-6, and steel factor) in assays performed on MS-5 but not on human marrow feeders. (3) Hydrocortisone led to a 50% decrease in the numbers of colony-forming units-granulocyte-macrophage found in methycellulose colony assays of CD34++/CD38- cells performed in the presence of MS-5 cells. Taken together, our results indicate that hydrocortisone acts differently on a murine stromal cell line and on marrow-derived human stromal cells and may suppress the expression by MS-5 cells of an activity selectively promoting amplification of clonogenic cells derived from primitive LTC-IC.

Differential regulation of primitive human hematopoietic cells in long- term cultures maintained on genetically engineered murine stromal cells

Various growth factors are known to stimulate both early and late stages of human hematopoietic cell development in semisolid assay systems, but their role as microenvironmental regulators is poorly understood. To address this problem, we developed a novel coculture system in which highly purified primitive human hematopoietic cells were seeded onto an irradiated feeder layer of cells from a murine marrow-derived stromal cell line (M2–10B4) previously engineered by retroviral-mediated gene transfer to produce specific human factors. Effects on cells at very early, intermediate, and late stages of hematopoiesis were then evaluated by assessing the number of clonogenic cell precursors (long-term culture initiating cells [LTC-IC]), clonogenic cells, and mature granulocyte and macrophage progeny present in the cultures after 5 weeks. In the absence of any feeders, cells at all stages of hematopoiesis decreased to very low levels. In contrast, maintenance of LTC-IC was found to be supported by control murine stromal cells as effectively as by standard human marrow adherent layers. The presence of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) and interleukin-3-producing M2–10B4 cells in combination was able to further enhance the maintenance and early differentiation of these cells without a decline in their proliferative potential as measured by the clonogenic output per LTC-IC. However, this effect was lost if granulocyte-macrophage CSF (GM-CSF)-producing feeders were also present. On the other hand, in the presence of GM-CSF-producing feeders, the output of mature granulocytes and macrophages increased 20- fold. These findings show that it is possible to selectively improve the maintenance of very primitive human hematopoietic cells in vitro or their output of mature progeny by appropriate manipulation of the long- term marrow culture system. Further exploitation of this approach should facilitate investigation of the mechanisms operative within the human marrow microenvironment in vivo and the design of protocols for in vitro manipulation of human marrow for future therapeutic applications.

Differential Regulation of Primitive Human Hematopoietic Cells in Long-Term Cultures Maintained on Genetically Engineered Murine Stromal Cells

Various growth factors are known to stimulate both early and late stages of human hematopoietic cell development in semisolid assay systems, but their role as microenvironmental regulators is poorly understood. To address this problem, we developed a novel coculture system in which highly purified primitive human hematopoietic cells were seeded onto an irradiated feeder layer of cells from a murine marrow-derived stromal cell line (M2-10B4) previously engineered by retroviral-mediated gene transfer to produce specific human factors. Effects on cells at very early, intermediate, and late stages of hematopoiesis were then evaluated by assessing the number of clonogenic cell precursors (long-term culture initiating cells [LTC-IC]), clonogenic cells, and mature granulocyte and macrophage progeny present in the cultures after 5 weeks. In the absence of any feeders, cells at all stages of hematopoiesis decreased to very low levels. In contrast, maintenance of LTC-IC was found to be supported by control murine stromal cells as effectively as by standard human marrow adherent layers. The presence of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) and interleukin-3-producing M2-10B4 cells in combination was able to further enhance the maintenance and early differentiation of these cells without a decline in their proliferative potential as measured by the clonogenic output per LTC-IC. However, this effect was lost if granulocyte-macrophage CSF (GM-CSF)-producing feeders were also present. On the other hand, in the presence of GM-CSF-producing feeders, the output of mature granulocytes and macrophages increased 20-fold. These findings show that it is possible to selectively improve the maintenance of very primitive human hematopoietic cells in vitro or their output of mature progeny by appropriate manipulation of the long-term marrow culture system. Further exploitation of this approach should facilitate investigation of the mechanisms operative within the human marrow microenvironment in vivo and the design of protocols for in vitro manipulation of human marrow for future therapeutic applications.

Stimulation of retroviral vector infection of murine hematopoietic progenitors

Conditioned media (CM) from a cloned murine marrow-derived stromal cell line, AC6.21 (ALC), was shown to stimulate retroviral vector infection of hematopoietic progenitors in culture. Inclusion of ALC CM during cocultivation of normal murine bone marrow (BM) with vector-producing fibroblasts improved infection efficiency of day 13 spleen colony-forming cells (CFU-s) from 63% (15 provirus-positive spleen colonies/24 total), without added growth factor, to 90% (36 provirus-positive colonies/40 total). In addition, stimulation of BM cells with ALC CM during cocultivation improved retroviral infection of stem cells capable of repopulating the hematopoietic system of irradiated recipient animals. Because ALC CM was found to have 50 to 100 U/ml of IL-6 activity, purified recombinant human IL-6 was tested for an effect in this system. Stimulation with IL-6 alone increased retroviral infection efficiency of CFU-s from 15% (17 colonies provirus-positive/111 total analyzed) without added growth factor to 66% (97 provirus-positive colonies/148 total analyzed). These experiments support and extend previous studies which have demonstrated the necessity for growth factor stimulation in optimizing retroviral vector transduction of hematopoietic precursors.