Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are maintained in an undifferentiated quiescent state within a bone marrow niche. Here we show that Foxo3a, a forkhead transcription factor that acts downstream of the PTEN/PI3K/Akt pathway, is critical for HSC self-renewal. We generated gene-targeted Foxo3a(-/-) mice and showed that, although the proliferation and differentiation of Foxo3a(-/-) hematopoietic progenitors were normal, the number of colony-forming cells present in long-term cocultures of Foxo3a(-/-) bone marrow cells and stromal cells was reduced. The ability of Foxo3a(-/-) HSCs to support long-term reconstitution of hematopoiesis in a competitive transplantation assay was also impaired. Foxo3a(-/-) HSCs also showed increased phosphorylation of p38MAPK, an elevation of ROS, defective maintenance of quiescence, and heightened sensitivity to cell-cycle-specific myelotoxic injury. Finally, HSC frequencies were significantly decreased in aged Foxo3a(-/-) mice compared to the littermate controls. Our results demonstrate that Foxo3a plays a pivotal role in maintaining the HSC pool.

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) reside and self-renew in the bone marrow (BM) niche. Overall, the signaling that regulates stem cell dormancy in the HSC niche remains controversial. Here, we demonstrate that TGF-β type II receptor-deficient HSCs show low-level Smad activation and impaired long-term repopulating activity, underlining the critical role of TGF-β/Smad signaling in HSC maintenance. TGF-β is produced as a latent form by a variety of cells, so we searched for those that express activator molecules for latent TGF-β. Nonmyelinating Schwann cells in BM proved responsible for activation. These glial cells ensheathed autonomic nerves, expressed HSC niche factor genes, and were in contact with a substantial proportion of HSCs. Autonomic nerve denervation reduced the number of these active TGF-β-producing cells and led to rapid loss of HSCs from BM. We propose that glial cells are components of a BM niche and maintain HSC hibernation by regulating activation of latent TGF-β.

Acquired uniparental disomy (aUPD) is a common feature of cancer genomes, leading to loss of heterozygosity. aUPD is associated not only with loss-of-function mutations of tumour suppressor genes, but also with gain-of-function mutations of proto-oncogenes. Here we show unique gain-of-function mutations of the C-CBL (also known as CBL) tumour suppressor that are tightly associated with aUPD of the 11q arm in myeloid neoplasms showing myeloproliferative features. The C-CBL proto-oncogene, a cellular homologue of v-Cbl, encodes an E3 ubiquitin ligase and negatively regulates signal transduction of tyrosine kinases. Homozygous C-CBL mutations were found in most 11q-aUPD-positive myeloid malignancies. Although the C-CBL mutations were oncogenic in NIH3T3 cells, c-Cbl was shown to functionally and genetically act as a tumour suppressor. C-CBL mutants did not have E3 ubiquitin ligase activity, but inhibited that of wild-type C-CBL and CBL-B (also known as CBLB), leading to prolonged activation of tyrosine kinases after cytokine stimulation. c-Cbl(-/-) haematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) showed enhanced sensitivity to a variety of cytokines compared to c-Cbl(+/+) HSPCs, and transduction of C-CBL mutants into c-Cbl(-/-) HSPCs further augmented their sensitivities to a broader spectrum of cytokines, including stem-cell factor (SCF, also known as KITLG), thrombopoietin (TPO, also known as THPO), IL3 and FLT3 ligand (FLT3LG), indicating the presence of a gain-of-function that could not be attributed to a simple loss-of-function. The gain-of-function effects of C-CBL mutants on cytokine sensitivity of HSPCs largely disappeared in a c-Cbl(+/+) background or by co-transduction of wild-type C-CBL, which suggests the pathogenic importance of loss of wild-type C-CBL alleles found in most cases of C-CBL-mutated myeloid neoplasms. Our findings provide a new insight into a role of gain-of-function mutations of a tumour suppressor associated with aUPD in the pathogenesis of some myeloid cancer subsets.

Multipotent self-renewing hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) regenerate the adult blood system following transplantation 1 , a curative therapy for numerous diseases such as immunodeficiencies and leukemias 2 . While significant effort has been applied to identify HSC maintenance factors through characterization of the in vivo bone marrow (BM) HSC Users may view, print, copy, and download text and data-mine the content in such documents, for the purposes of academic research, subject always to the full Conditions of use: