The stem cell pool can be fractionated by using the mitochondrial dye, rhodamine-123, into Rho low hematopoietic stem cells and Rho high progenitors. Rho low stem cells permanently engraft all lineages, whereas Rho high progenitors transiently produce erythrocytes, without substantial platelet or granulocyte production. We hypothesized that the inability of the Rho high cells to produce platelets in vivo was due to the fact that these cells preferentially engraft in the spleen and lack marrow engraftment. Initially, we demonstrated that Rho high progenitors produced more megakaryocytes in vitro than Rho low stem cells did. To study the activity of the Rho low and Rho high subsets in vivo, we used mice allelic at the hemoglobin and glucose phosphate isomerase loci to track donor-derived erythropoiesis and thrombopoiesis. Rho low stem cells contributed to robust and long-term erythroid and platelet engraftment, whereas Rho high progenitors contributed only to transient erythroid engraftment and produced very low numbers of platelets in vivo. Donorderived megakaryopoiesis occurred at higher densities in the spleen than in the bone marrow in animals receiving Rho low stem cells and peaked around day 28. Blockade of splenic engraftment using pertussis toxin did not affect the peak of splenic megakaryopoiesis, supporting the hypothesis that these megakaryocytes were derived from progenitors that originated in the bone marrow. These data emphasize that in vitro behavior of hematopoietic progenitor cell subsets does not always predict their behavior following transplantation. This study supports a major role for the spleen in thrombopoi
IntroductionMurine hematopoietic stem cells have been shown to reside within a population of cells that do not express lineage-specific markers (Lin neg ) and express the antigens Sca-1, c-kit, and Thy-1.1. Cells of this phenotype comprise the stem cell pool in certain strains of mice. 1,2 Rhodamine-123 (Rho) is a mitochondrial dye that stains cells based on their state of activation in which the more metabolically active cells tend to fluoresce brightly and quiescent cells dimly. 3 Rho has been used to subfractionate the stem cell pool into quiescent and metabolically active subsets. The Rho low subset is highly enriched for hematopoietic stem cells, to the degree that as few as 4 of these cells can reconstitute a mouse for the lifetime of the animal. Observations of the behavior of these stem cells have led to the model of the 2-tiered stem-cell pool. 4 According to this model, the Rho low cells make rare contributions to the peripheral compartment, but are mobilized in response to physiologic needs, and represent most of the transplantable stem cells. In contrast, Rho high cells have a high rate of cell division and, thus, make frequent contributions to the peripheral compartment under normal conditions. However, Rho high cells perform poorly in transplantation experiments, producing mainly erythrocytes and contributing little to platelet or granulocyte recovery. 5,6 All previous stu...