| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
By
From the Cancer Center, University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Worcester, MA.
We have recently defined the window for marrow stem cell homing into nonablated hosts as the first 24 hours posttransplant. Within this homing window, donor cells rapidly cleared from the peripheral blood and lungs and plateaued in the marrow. We have now assessed the cell-cycle status of the engrafting cells capable of contributing to long-term hematopoiesis using administration of hydroxyurea (HU), a chemotherapy agent with S-phase cell-cycle specificity. HU was given at very short periods following a male bone marrow transplant (0, 3, 6, 12, and 15 hours) into female nonablated hosts, and donor cell engraftment was analyzed after 6 weeks. The data show that quickly after transplant (12 hours), greater than half of the engrafting cells capable of contributing long-term to all levels of the hematopoietic hierarchy are in S-phase. Analysis after 6 weeks included whole bone marrow, peripheral blood, primitive cells with high proliferative potential, and mature lineage-restricted marrow cells. These donor cells appear to be naturally synchronized. When HU was administered at any of the other time points, there was little evidence of cell death 6 weeks postengraftment.
FOLLOWING A BONE MARROW transplant, stem cells in the peripheral blood are thought to selectively migrate to stem cell "niches" within the bone marrow in a process referred to as homing. Once "homed" to the marrow, these cells then proliferate and differentiate. However, little is known about the mechanisms of hematopoietic cell homing, including timing and microenvironmental influences.
Hydroxyurea (HU) is a chemotherapy agent with cell-cycle stage specificity. HU preferentially kills cells in the DNA synthesis phase,1,2 and blocks the entry of G1 cells into this drug-sensitive S phase.1 The plasma half-life of HU after intraperitoneal injection in the BALB/c mouse is approximately 13 to 48 minutes,3,4 and the concentration of HU that affects spleen colony-forming units (CFUs) decreases to ineffective levels by 3 to 4 hours.4 As such, the cell kill observed after a single injection of HU represents the proportion of cells in S-phase at the time of drug exposure.
HU administration in vivo has previously been successfully used for a number of applications, such as to determine the number of different cell populations in cycle at a given time and hence to estimate cell-cycle times of particular populations.4-8 HU has also been used as a method for synchronizing cells capable of giving rise to colonies in the spleen when injected into lethally irradiated mice.4 More recently, HU administration has been used as a method to detect biological activity capable of suppressing the normal proliferative response of cells to HU.9
In the present study, we used HU administration as an in vivo assay for analyzing when engrafting cells capable of contributing to long-term hematopoiesis first enter the cell cycle posttransplant. Specifically, we administered HU at short periods after a bone marrow transplant and determined the number of donor cells long-term. The data show that quickly after transplant (approximately 12 hours), greater than half of the engrafting cells capable of contributing long-term to all levels of the hematopoietic hierarchy are cycling. These donor cells are naturally synchronized, with little evidence of cell death following administration of HU either 0, 3, 6, or 15 hours posttransplant.
Mice
Cell Suspensions
Transplants and HU Administration Male whole bone marrow cell populations were transplanted into nonablated female recipients by tail vein injection. Each transplant contained between 100 × 106 and 120 × 106 cells. Results were mathematically standardized so that each transplant was equal to 100 × 106 whole marrow cells. This correction assumes a linear relationship between the number of cells transplanted and the level of donor cells detected. A linear relationship has previously been shown for whole marrow transplants over the cell doses used.11 At various short intervals posttransplant (0, 3, 6, 12, or 15 hours), a single dose (900 mg/kg) of HU (Sigma Diagnostics, St Louis, MO) dissolved in PBS was administered to each recipient by tail vein injection. Cells were allowed to engraft for 6 weeks, after which the hosts were killed and the presence of donor cells was quantified using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH).Engraftment Quantification FISH. Peripheral blood and bone marrow cell populations were analyzed for donor cells using FISH. Red blood cells were lysed from peripheral blood samples using 0.83% ammonium chloride at 37°C for 5 minutes. Residual cells were washed twice, first in PBS and then in PBS 5% HI FCS. Cell cytospins were fixed in a 50% Carnoy's (75% methanol/25% acetic acid) and 50% PBS solution for 10 minutes before baking at 72°C for 1 hour. The slides were then further fixed in 100% Carnoy's solution for 5 minutes before permeabilization using proteinase K (0.2 µg/mL; Sigma) enzymatic digestion in 20 mmol Tris buffer at 37°C for 1.5 minutes. The cytospins were dehydrated through graded ethanol and then denatured in 70% formamide (GIBCO-BRL, Gaithersburg, MD) in 2× SSC (0.3 mol/L NaCl and 0.03 mol/L sodium citrate, pH 6.4) at 70°C for 3 minutes. The slides were dehydrated once more, and then hybridized with a digoxigenin-labeled Y chromosome probe12 at 45°C overnight. Unbound probe was removed by stringent washing in three changes of 50% formamide in 2× SSC and two changes of 2× SSC at 45°C. Following a wash in 4× SSC (0.6 mol/L NaCl and 0.06 mol/L sodium citrate, pH 6.4) at room temperature, the slides were blocked using a blocking buffer consisting of 5% FCS, 5% nonfat milk (Shaw's, Bridgewater, MA), and 0.05% Triton X-100 (Sigma) in 4× SSC for 15 minutes. Detection of digoxigenin was made using anti-digoxigenin-rhodamine Fab fragments (Boehringer, Mannheim, Germany) at a concentration of 6.5 µg/mL in PBS containing 2% BSA fraction V (Sigma) for 30 minutes in the dark. Nonbound antibody was removed through three extensive, light-protected washings: first in 4× SSC for 10 minutes, then in 4× SSC containing 0.05% Triton X-100 for 10 minutes, and finally in 4× SSC for 10 minutes. Cytospins were counterstained in 0.4 µmol DAPI (4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole; Sigma) and mounted in the antifade media Vectashield (Vector Laboratories, Burlingame, CA). Specific positive label was confirmed under a microscope by a visual check at an excitation and emission wavelength other than that of rhodamine. Individual values represent analysis of an average of 185 cells from at least four different fields of focus. Each group contained at least three individual mice. Samples were analyzed by multiple readers for verification of results. In addition, the results were confirmed by Southern blot analysis of whole femoral DNA.Hematopoietic Progenitor Cell Assay From one of the experiments, HPP-CFCs were grown using a double-layer nutrient agar culture system as previously described,13 except for the use of seven growth factors (interleukin-1 [IL-1] 250 U/mL, IL-3 100 ng/mL, colony-stimulating factor-1 [CSF-1] 5,000 U/mL, granulocyte-macrophage CSF, 2.5 ng/mL, granulocyte CSF 5 ng/mL, stem cell factor, 100 ng/mL, and basic fibroblast growth factor 5 ng/mL) instead of three. HPP-CFCs typically generated colonies greater than 0.5 mm in diameter consisting of tightly packed cells. Functionally, these are defined as primitive cells by a relative resistance to 5-fluorouracil, synergistic growth factor requirements, and copurification with long-term reconstituting cells in vivo.14,15
Multilineage Analysis From a separate experiment, bone marrow cells were isolated from the different hematopoietic lineages and analyzed by FISH for the proportion of donor cells 6 weeks posttransplant. Individual bone marrow cell aliquots from mice that received either a whole bone marrow transplant plus HU 12 hours posttransplant or only a whole bone marrow transplant were labeled with lineage-specific rat anti-mouse primary antibodies: B220 (B cells),16 Gr-1 (neutrophils),17 or Lyt-2/L3T4 (CD4/CD8) (T cells)18 (Becton Dickinson, San Jose, CA). Each batch of antibody was evaluated by flow cytometric analysis for the concentration that resulted in the greatest shift in mean channel fluorescence and/or the percentage of positive cells detected. The optimal dilution for each antibody was in the range of 1:10 to 1:100 (final). Following a 15-minute incubation on ice, the labeled cells were washed in PBS 5% HI FCS and resuspended in the same initial volume. The cells were incubated with mouse serum-absorbed fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-conjugated goat anti-rat IgG (Southern Biotechnology Associates, Birmingham, AL) at 4°C for 20 minutes in the dark. The cells were washed in PBS 5% HI FCS and kept on ice until sorted.Statistics An unpaired two-sample t-test was used to test for significant differences in the proportion of donor cells in the peripheral blood, bone marrow, and HPP-CFC populations from HU-treated and untreated groups of mice. A Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used to test for significant differences in the proportion of donor cells from the different mature hematopoietic lineages from HU-treated and untreated groups of mice.
No differences in bone marrow or peripheral blood cellularity or marrow HPP-CFC content were detected between any of the mice groups 6 weeks posttransplant regardless of whether they received HU (data not shown). Therefore, the data are presented as the proportion of donor cells detected for each parameter. Cycling Status of Cells Engrafting to the Bone Marrow With the Ability to Contribute to Hematopoiesis Long-Term HU was administered either 0, 3, 6, 12, or 15 hours after a transplant of whole bone marrow, and the proportion of donor cells with the ability to contribute to hematopoiesis long-term was analyzed by FISH 6 weeks posttransplant (Fig 1). At this time, there was no difference in the proportion of donor cells in the marrow of mice that received either no HU or HU at 0, 3, or 6 hours posttransplant. However, there was a significant decrease (P < .001) in the proportion of donor cells in the bone marrow of mice that received HU 12 hours posttransplant. This decrease equals a cell kill of greater than 50%, and represents more than half of the cells capable of contributing to long-term hematopoiesis being in cycle. By 15 hours posttransplant, administration of HU again resulted in no difference in the proportion of donor cells in the marrow of mice 6 weeks posttransplant compared with mice that received the same transplant and no HU.
Cycling Status of Engrafting Marrow Cells With the Long-Term Primitive Characteristic of High Proliferative Potential To analyze the cycling status of engrafting marrow cells with long-term primitive characteristics, recipient marrow cells were assayed for HPP-CFCs 6 weeks posttransplant. Using FISH, the proportion of donor colonies from mice that received HU at either 0, 3, 12, or 15 hours posttransplant was compared with mice that received no HU posttransplant (Fig 2). The pattern of HU killing of donor cells was very similar for HPP-CFCs and whole bone marrow. Compared with a marrow transplant and no HU, there was no significant difference in the proportion of donor HPP-CFCs 6 weeks posttransplant when HU was administered either 0, 3, or 15 hours posttransplant. However, when HU was administered 12 hours posttransplant, there was a significant decrease (P < .025) in the proportion of donor HPP-CFCs 6 weeks posttransplant. This equals a cell kill greater than 50% and represents more than half of the cells with long-term HPP colony-forming ability being in cycle.
Analysis of Peripheral Blood Nucleated peripheral blood cells were also analyzed by FISH to ensure that the effect of HU administration 12 hours posttransplant was the same on peripherally circulating hematopoietic cells as that evident in the bone marrow (Fig 3). The pattern of HU killing of donor cells mirrored the pattern in the whole bone marrow. There was no significant difference in the proportion of donor peripheral white blood cells (WBCs) 6 weeks posttransplant for HU administered either 0, 3, or 15 hours posttransplant compared with a marrow transplant and no HU. However, when HU was administered 12 hours posttransplant, there was a significant decrease (P < .01) in the proportion of donor WBCs 6 weeks posttransplant. This equals a cell kill greater than 55% and represents more than half of the cells with the capability of contributing to hematopoiesis long-term being in cycle.
Analysis of Lineage-Restricted Progenitors Bone marrow cells with lineage-restricted potential were separated by flow cytometry (Table 1) and analyzed by FISH to determine if administration of HU 12 hours posttransplant resulted in an equivalent decrease in the proportion of donor cells in individual hematopoietic lineages (Fig 4) versus that seen in the whole bone marrow (Fig 1) and peripheral blood (Fig 3) 6 weeks posttransplant. Compared with mice that received no HU posttransplant, mice that received HU 12 hours posttransplant had a decrease in the proportion of donor cells in all of the hematopoietic lineages analyzed 6 weeks posttransplant. This included a significant decrease in myeloid cells and T cells (P < .1) and equals a cell kill of between 26% and 53% across all lineages analyzed.
We have demonstrated with in vivo administration of HU that transplanted marrow cells capable of contributing to all levels of the hematopoietic hierarchy long-term are initially quiescent but quickly go into cycle (approximately 12 hours posttransplant). The data indicate that this transplanted population is relatively synchronized in that greater than 50% cycle 12 hours posttransplant but virtually none are cycling either 6 or 15 hours posttransplant. It is important to note that this occurred in a nonablated transplant model, in which the preparative irradiation treatment is not stimulating the engrafting cells to cycle.
Submitted May 25, 1997;
accepted July 25, 1997.
The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page charge payment. This article must therefore be hearly marked ``advertisment'' in accordance with 18 U.S.C. section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
The authors acknowledge Joanne Wuu and Chung Hsieh for advice on statistical analysis of the data. We also acknowledge Ruud Hulspas for invaluable help and advice with the flow cytometric analysis and isolation of individual lineage cell populations.
1. Sinclair WH: Hydroxyurea effect on Chinese hamster cells grown in culture. Cancer Res 27:297, 1967[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
2.
Phillips ES,
Sternberg P,
Schwartz HS,
Cronin AP,
Sodergren J,
Vidal PM:
Hydroxyurea, acute cell death in proliferating tissues in rats.
Cancer Res
27:61,
1967 3. Fabricius E, Rajewsky MF: Determination of hydroxyurea in mammalian tissues and blood. Rev Eur Etudes Clin 16:679, 1971 4. Hodgson GS, Bradley TR, Martin RF, Sumner M, Fry P: Recovery of proliferating haemopoietic progenitor cells after killing by hydroxyurea. Cell Tissue Kinet 8:51, 1975[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve] 5. Vassort F, Frindel E, Tubiana M: Effects of hydroxyurea on the kinetics of colony forming units of bone marrow in the mouse. Cell Tissue Kinet 4:423, 1971[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve] 6. Necas E, Neuwrit J: Proliferation rate of haemopoietic stem cells after damage by several cytostatic agents. Cell Tissue Kinet 9:479, 1976[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve] 7. Necas E, Hauser F: Analysis of the effect of hydroxyurea on stem cell (CFU-s) kinetics. Cell Tissue Kinet 15:39, 1982[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve] 8. Schwartz GN, Patchen ML, Neta R, MacVittie TJ: Radioprotection of mice with interleukin-1: Relationship to the number of erythroid and granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming cells. Radiat Res 121:220, 1990[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve] 9. Necas E: Stem cell (CFUs) proliferation inhibitor in blood of mice injected with hydroxyurea. Cell Tissue Kinet 15:263, 1982[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve] 10. Fierz W, Brenan M, Mullbacher A, Simpson E: Non-H-2 and H-2-linked immune response genes control the cytotoxic T-cell response to H-Y. Immunogenetics 15:261, 1982[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve] 11. Rao SS, Peters SO, Crittenden RB, Stewart FM, Ramshaw HS, Quesenberry PJ: Stem cell transplantation in the normal nonmyeloablated host: Relationship between cell dose, schedule and engraftment. Exp Hematol 25:114, 1997[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve] 12. Weier HU, Polikoff D, Fawcett JJ, Greulich KM, Lee KH, Cram S, Chapman VM, Gray JW: Generation of five high-complexity painting probe libraries from flow-sorted mouse chromosomes. Genomics 21:641, 1994[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve] 13. Bartelmez SH, Bradley TR, Bertoncello I, Mochizuki DY, Tushinski RJ, Stanley ER, Hapel AJ, Young IG, Kriegler AB, Hodgson GS: Interleukin 1 plus interleukin 3 plus colony-stimulating factor 1 are essential for clonal proliferation of primitive myeloid bone marrow cells. Exp Hematol 17:240, 1989[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve] 14. McNiece IK, Bertoncello I, Kriegler AB, Quesenberry PJ: Colony-forming cells with high proliferative potential (HPP-CFC). Int J Cell Cloning 8:146, 1990[Abstract] 15. Bertoncello I: Status of high proliferative potential colony-forming cells in the hematopoietic stem cell hierarchy. Curr Top Microbiol Immunol 177:83, 1992[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve] 16. Coffman RL: Surface antigen expression and immunoglobulin gene rearrangement during mouse pre-B cell development. Immunol Rev 69:5, 1982[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve] 17. Hestdal K, Ruscetti FW, Ihle JN, Jacobsen SE, Dubois CM, Kopp WC, Longo DL, Keller JR: Characterization and regulation of RB6-8C5 antigen expression on murine bone marrow cells. J Immunol 147:22, 1991[Abstract] 18. Cobbold SP, Jayasuriya A, Nash A, Prospero TD, Waldmann H: Therapy with monoclonal antibodies by elimination of T-cell subsets in vivo. Nature 312:548, 1984[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
19.
Stewart FM,
Crittenden RB,
Lowry PA,
Pearson-White S,
Quesenberry PJ:
Long term engraftment of normal and post-5-fluorouracil murine marrow into normal nonmyeloblated mice.
Blood
81:2566,
1993
20.
Nilsson SK,
Dooner MS,
Tiarks CY,
Weier H-U,
Quesenberry PJ:
Potential and distribution of transplanted hematopoietic stem cells in a nonablated mouse model.
Blood
89:4013,
1997 21. Necas E, Ponka P, Neuwirt J: Decreased sensitivity to hydroxyurea and to [3H]thymidine suicide in the middle of the S phase. Cell Tissue Kinet 14:261, 1981[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve] 22. Hendrikx PJ, Martens ACM, Hagenbeek A, Keij JF, Visser JWM: Homing of fluorescently labeled hemopoietic stem cells. Exp Hematol 24:129, 1996[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve] 23. Bradford GB, Williams B, Rossi R, Bertoncello I: Quiescence, cycling and turnover in the primitive hemopoietic stem cell compartment. Exp Hematol 25:445, 1997[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve] © 1997 by The American Society of Hematology.This article has been cited by other articles:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||