Loss of the Rho GTPase activating protein p190-B enhances hematopoietic stem cell engraftment potential

Blood. 2009 Oct 22;114(17):3557-66. doi: 10.1182/blood-2009-02-205815. Epub 2009 Aug 27.

Abstract

Hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) engraftment is a multistep process involving HSC homing to bone marrow, self-renewal, proliferation, and differentiation to mature blood cells. Here, we show that loss of p190-B RhoGTPase activating protein, a negative regulator of Rho GTPases, results in enhanced long-term engraftment during serial transplantation. This effect is associated with maintenance of functional HSC-enriched cells. Furthermore, loss of p190-B led to marked improvement of HSC in vivo repopulation capacity during ex vivo culture without altering proliferation and multilineage differentiation of HSC and progeny. Transcriptional analysis revealed that p190-B deficiency represses the up-regulation of p16(Ink4a) in HSCs in primary and secondary transplantation recipients, providing a possible mechanism of p190-B-mediated HSC functions. Our study defines p190-B as a critical transducer element of HSC self-renewal activity and long-term engraftment, thus suggesting that p190-B is a target for HSC-based therapies requiring maintenance of engraftment phenotype.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cell Cycle
  • Cell Proliferation
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p16 / metabolism
  • Fetus / metabolism
  • Flow Cytometry
  • GTPase-Activating Proteins / physiology*
  • Graft Survival*
  • Hematopoiesis*
  • Hematopoietic Stem Cell Mobilization
  • Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation*
  • Hematopoietic Stem Cells / physiology*
  • Liver / embryology*
  • Liver / metabolism
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Mice, Knockout
  • Transplantation Conditioning

Substances

  • Arhgap5 protein, mouse
  • Cdkn2a protein, mouse
  • Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p16
  • GTPase-Activating Proteins