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Blood, 15 November 2004, Vol. 104, No. 10, pp. 3169-3172. Prepublished online as a Blood First Edition Paper on April 22, 2004; DOI 10.1182/blood-2003-11-3861.
Submitted November 12, 2003
Ematologia, Oncologia e Medicina Molecolare, Istituto Superiore di Sanita, Roma, Italy, Italy * Corresponding author; email: rdemaria{at}tin.it.
A Proliferation Inducing Ligand (APRIL) is a new tumor necrosis factor family member implicated in tumor cell proliferation. We investigated the role of APRIL in megakaryocytopoiesis, a developmental hematopoietic process responsible for progenitor cell differentiation to megakaryoblasts and megakaryocytes, leading to platelet formation. APRIL is not expressed in CD34+ progenitor cells from normal donors, but it is massively upregulated during the proliferative phase of megakaryocytic cell differentiation. Exogenous APRIL expression in primary cells increases megakaryocytic cell growth, suggesting that APRIL acts as a proliferative factor in megakaryocytopoiesis. More importantly, neutralization of endogenous APRIL was able to dramatically reduce megakaryocyte expansion and platelet production. Thus, our data provide evidence that APRIL acts as a growth factor for terminal megakaryocytopoiesis and may promote physiological platelet production.
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