Xavier-Ferrucio and colleagues elucidate the mechanism of thrombocytosis in iron deficiency anemia, using murine and human cell models to demonstrate that iron deficiency attenuates ERK signaling and biases the commitment of megakaryocyte-erythrocyte progenitors toward the megakaryocytic lineage.

The propensity of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells to differentiate into specific lineages may be influenced by a number of factors, including the selection of the somatic cell type used for reprogramming. Herein we report the generation of new iPS cells, which we derived from human articular chondrocytes and from cord blood mononucleocytes via lentiviral-mediated delivery of Oct4, Klf4, Sox2, and cMyc. Molecular, cytochemical, and cytogenic analyses confirmed the acquisition of hallmark features of pluripotency, as well as the retention of normal karyotypes following reprogramming of both the human articular chondrocytes (AC) and the cord blood (CB) cells. In vitro and in vivo functional analyses formally established the pluripotent differentiation capacity of all cell lines. Chondrogenic differentiation assays comparing iPS cells derived from AC, CB, and a well established dermal fibroblast cell line (HDFa-Yk26) identified enhanced proteoglycan-rich matrix formation and cartilage-associated gene expression from AC-derived iPS cells. These findings suggest that the tissue of origin may impact the fate potential of iPS cells for differentiating into specialized cell types, such as chondrocytes. Thus, we generated new cellular tools for the identification of inherent features driving high chondrogenic potential of reprogrammed cells.

The periosteum contains multipotent skeletal progenitors that contribute to bone repair. The signaling pathways regulating the response of periosteal cells to fracture are largely unknown. Phosphatidylinositol-3 Kinase (PI3K), a prominent lipid kinase, is a major signaling protein downstream of several factors that regulate osteoblast differentiation. Cbl is an E3 ubiquitin ligase and a major adaptor protein that binds to the p85 regulatory subunit and modulates PI3K activity. Substitution of tyrosine 737 to phenylalanine (Y737F) in Cbl abolishes the interaction between Cbl and the p85 subunit without affecting the Cbl’s ubiquitin ligase function. Here, we investigated the role of PI3K signaling during the very early stages of fracture healing using OsterixRFP reporter mice. We found that the absence of PI3K regulation by Cbl resulted in robust periosteal thickening, with increased proliferation of periosteal cells. While the multipotent properties of periosteal progenitors to differentiate into chondrocytes and adipocytes did not change, osteogenic differentiation in the absence of Cbl-PI3K interaction was highly augmented. The increased stability and nuclear localization of Osterix observed in periosteal cells lacking Cbl-PI3K interaction may explain this enhanced osteogenic differentiation since the expression of Osterix transcriptional target genes including osteocalcin and BSP are increased in YF cells. Overall, our findings highlight a hitherto unexplored and novel role for Cbl and PI3K in modulating the osteogenic response of periosteal cells during the early stages of fracture repair.

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