Recent studies have implicated bonelining osteoblasts as important regulators of hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) self-renewal and differentiation; however, because much of the evidence supporting this notion derives from indirect in vivo experiments, which are unavoidably complicated by the presence of other cell types within the complex bone marrow milieu, the sufficiency of osteoblasts in modulating HSC activity has remained controversial. To address this, we prospectively isolated mouse osteoblasts, using a novel flow cytometry-based approach, and directly tested their activity as HSC niche cells and their role in cyclophosphamide/granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)-induced HSC proliferation and mobilization. We found that osteoblasts expand rapidly after cyclophosphamide/G-CSF treatment and exhibit phenotypic and functional changes that directly influence HSC proliferation and maintenance of reconstituting potential. Effects of mobilization on osteoblast number and function depend on the function of ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM), the product of the Atm gene, demonstrating a new role for ATM in stem cell niche activity. These studies demonstrate that signals from osteoblasts can directly initiate and modulate HSC proliferation in the context of mobilization. This work also establishes that direct interaction with osteolineage niche cells, in the absence of additional environmental inputs, is sufficient to modulate stem cell activity. (Blood. 2008;112:519-531)
IntroductionMature blood cells have a finite lifespan that necessitates their constant replenishment from self-renewing, multipotent hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). 1 HSC maintenance and expansion are thought to be regulated by interactions with bone marrow (BM) stromal elements, including osteoblasts 2-4 and vascular endothelial cells, 5 both of which have been proposed to form a supportive HSC "niche." 2,[6][7][8] Osteoblasts, in particular, have been implicated in controlling HSC numbers, and studies in gene-targeted 2 and hormone-treated 6,9 mice show a strong correlation between experimentally induced expansion of osteoblasts and increased HSC frequency. Significantly, most studies of osteoblast function as it relates to HSC have relied on complex in vivo models [10][11][12][13] or on in vitro systems in which osteoblasts are derived ex vivo by extended culture of calvarial precursor cells. 10 Although clearly suggestive, these in vivo analyses are complicated by the unavoidable presence of other, nonosteoblastic cell types, whereas in vitro studies of culture-derived osteoblasts are challenged by the possibility that extended culture may induce changes in osteoblast behavior and/or may fail to properly recapitulate the in vivo conditions under which osteoblasts normally would be formed or regulated. For these reasons, it has been difficult to establish the particular aspects of HSC function that depend on the osteoblastic niche, and this has generated significant controversy regarding the specific role of osteoblasts in HSC regulatio...