A pluri- és multipotencia határán: a ganglionléc őssejtjei

Absztrakt A ganglionléc a gerinces embriókban megjelenő átmeneti, multipotens, vándorló sejtpopuláció, amiből a perifériás idegrendszer idegi és gliális elemeitől kezdve a craniofacialis terület ectomesenchymalis származékain vagy a bőr pigmentsejtjein át számos struktúra származtatható. Érdekes módon a ganglionléc-eredetű őssejtek nem csak az embrionális ganglionlécben vannak jelen, hanem megtalálhatók az általuk betelepített embrionális és felnőttkori szövetekben is. Ezek a posztmigrációs őssejtek – legalábbis részlegesen – tükrözik elődeik multipotenciáját. Ráadásul az olyan ganglionléc-eredetű, terminálisan differenciálódott sejtek, mint például a Schwann-sejtek és a melanocyták, bármikor képesek őssejtszerű progenitorokká dedifferenciálódni. Az összefoglaló tanulmányban a szerzők bemutatják, hogy mit tudunk jelenleg ezekről a különleges plaszticitású őssejtekről és milyen potenciális alkalmazási lehetőségek merülnek fel velük kapcsolatban a regeneratív orvoslás területén. Orv. Hetil., 2015, 156(42), 1683–1694

Quo vadis, hematológia?

For decades, developing hematopoietic cells have been strictly compartmentalized into a small population of multipotent self-renewing hematopoietic stem cells, multipotent hematopoietic progenitor cells that are undergoing commitment to myeloid or lymphoid fates, and unipotent precursor cells that mature towards peripheral blood and immune cells. Recent studies, however, have provided a battery of findings that cannot be explained by this "classical" hierarchical model for the architecture of hematopoiesis. It is emerging that heterogeneous hematopoietic stem cell populations in the bone marrow coexist, each with distinct, preprogrammed differentiation and proliferation behaviors. Three subsets can be distinguished among them: myeloid-biased (alpha), balanced (beta), and lymphoid-biased (gamma/delta) hematopoietic stem cells. The ratio of these hematopoietic stem cell subsets is developmentally regulated in the foetal liver and hematopoietic stem cells adult bone marrow, and coordinately gives rise to hematopoiesis. Beta- and gamma/delta-hematopoietic stem cells are found predominantly early in the life of an organism, whereas alpha-hematopoietic stem cells accumulate in aged mice and humans. In addition, new sophisticated genetic experiments in mice have identified a major role of long-lived, committed progenitor cells downstream from hematopoietic stem cells as drivers of normal adult hematopoiesis, and revealed that post-transplantation hematopoiesis differs qualitatively and quantitatively from normal steady-state hematopoiesis. These findings have important implications for understanding in situ the regulation of haematopoiesis in health and disease. Orv. Hetil., 2016, 157(46), 1819-1829

Regulation of mouse microglia activation and effector functions by bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells

Mesenchymal stem or stromal cells (MSCs) are rare multipotent cells with potent regenerative and immunomodulatory properties. Microglial cells are specialized tissue macrophages of the central nervous system (CNS) that continuously survey their environment with highly motile extensions. Recently several studies have shown that MSCs are capable of reprogramming microglia into an “M2-like” phenotype characterized by increased phagocytic activity and upregulated expression of anti- inflammatory mediators in vitro. However, the precise polarization states of microglia in the presence of MSCs under physiological or under inflammatory conditions remain largely unknown. In this study, we found that MSCs induce a mixed microglia phenotype defined as Arg-1-high, CD86-high, CD206-high, IL-10-high, PGE2-high, MCP-1/CCL2-high, IL-1β- moderate, NALP-3-low, and TNF-α-low cells. These MSC-elicited microglial cells have high phagocytic activity and antigen-presenting ability. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is able to shape this microglia phenotype quantitatively, but not qualitatively in the presence of MSCs. This unique polarization state resembles a novel regulatory microglia phenotype, which might contribute to the resolution of inflammation and to tissue repair in the CNS

Licensing by Inflammatory Cytokines Abolishes Heterogeneity of Immunosuppressive Function of Mesenchymal Stem Cell Population

When mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are used for therapy of immunological pathologies, they get into an inflammatory environment, altering the effectiveness of the treatment. To establish the impact of environmental inflammatory factors on MSCs' immunofunction in the mirror of intrinsic heterogeneity of mouse MSC population, individual MSC clones were generated and characterized. Adipogenic but not osteogenic differentiation and pro-angiogenic activity of five independent MSC cell lines were similar. Regarding osteogenic differentiation, clones MSC3 and MSC6 exhibited poorer capacity than MSC2, MSC4, and MSC5. To study the immunosuppressive heterogeneity, in vitro and in vivo experiments have been carried out using T-cell proliferation assay and delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) response, respectively. A remarkable difference was found between the clones in their ability to inhibit T-cell proliferation in the following order: MSC2MSC5>MSC4>MSC3>>MSC6. Nevertheless, the differences between the immunosuppressive activities of the individual clones disappeared on pretreatment of the cells with pro-inflammatory cytokines, a procedure called licensing. Stimulation of all clones with IFN- and TNF- resulted in elevation of their inhibitory capability to a similar level. Nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) were identified as major mediators of immunofunction of the MSC clones. The earlier findings were also supported by in vivo results. Without licensing, MSC2 inhibited DTH response, while MSC6 did not affect DTH response. In contrast, prestimulation of MSC6 with inflammatory cytokines resulted in strong suppression by this clone as well. Here, we have showed that MSC population is functionally heterogeneous in terms of immunosuppressive function; however, this variability is largely reduced under pro-inflammatory conditions

Establishment and Characterization of a Brca1-/-, p53-/- Mouse Mammary Tumor Cell Line.

Breast cancer is the most commonly occurring cancer in women and the second most common cancer overall. By the age of 80, the estimated risk for breast cancer for women with germline BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations is around 80%. Genetically engineered BRCA1-deficient mouse models offer a unique opportunity to study the pathogenesis and therapy of triple negative breast cancer. Here we present a newly established Brca1-/-, p53-/- mouse mammary tumor cell line, designated as CST. CST shows prominent features of BRCA1-mutated triple-negative breast cancers including increased motility, high proliferation rate, genome instability and sensitivity to platinum chemotherapy and PARP inhibitors (olaparib, veliparib, rucaparib and talazoparib). Genomic instability of CST cells was confirmed by whole genome sequencing, which also revealed the presence of COSMIC (Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer) mutation signatures 3 and 8 associated with homologous recombination (HR) deficiency. In vitro sensitivity of CST cells was tested against 11 chemotherapy agents. Tumors derived from orthotopically injected CST-mCherry cells in FVB-GFP mice showed sensitivity to cisplatin, providing a new model to study the cooperation of BRCA1-KO, mCherry-positive tumor cells and the GFP-expressing stromal compartment in therapy resistance and metastasis formation. In summary, we have established CST cells as a new model recapitulating major characteristics of BRCA1-negative breast cancers

Significance of the Tks4 scaffold protein in bone tissue homeostasis

Abstract The main driver of osteoporosis is an imbalance between bone resorption and formation. The pathogenesis of osteoporosis has also been connected to genetic alterations in key osteogenic factors and dysfunction of bone marrow mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (BM-MSCs). Tks4 (encoded by the Sh3pxd2b gene) is a scaffold protein involved in podosome organization. Homozygous mutational inactivation of Sh3pxd2b causes Frank-ter Haar syndrome (FTHS), a genetic disease that affects bone tissue as well as eye, ear, and heart functions. To date, the role of Tks4 in adult bone homeostasis has not been investigated. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze the facial and femoral bone phenotypes of Sh3pxd2b knock-out (KO) mice using micro-CT methods. In addition to the analysis of the Sh3pxd2b-KO mice, the bone microstructure of an FTHS patient was also examined. Macro-examination of skulls from Tks4-deficient mice revealed craniofacial malformations that were very similar to symptoms of the FTHS patient. The femurs of the Sh3pxd2b-KO mice had alterations in the trabecular system and showed signs of osteoporosis, and, similarly, the FTHS patient also showed increased trabecular separation/porosity. The expression levels of the Runx2 and osteocalcin bone formation markers were reduced in the bone and bone marrow of the Sh3pxd2b-KO femurs, respectively. Our recent study demonstrated that Sh3pxd2b-KO BM-MSCs have a reduced ability to differentiate into osteoblast lineage cells; therefore, we concluded that the Tks4 scaffold protein is important for osteoblast formation, and that it likely plays a role in bone cell homeostasis

Structural insights into the tyrosine phosphorylation-mediated inhibition of SH3 domain-ligand interactions.

Src homology 3 (SH3) domains bind proline-rich linear motifs in eukaryotes. By mediating inter- and intramolecular interactions, they regulate the functions of many proteins involved in a wide variety of signal transduction pathways. Phosphorylation at different tyrosine residues in SH3 domains have been reported previously. In several cases, the functional consequences have also been investigated. However, a full understanding of the effects of tyrosine phosphorylation on the ligand interactions and cellular functions of SH3 domains requires detailed structural, atomic-resolution studies along with biochemical and biophysical analyses. Here, we present the first crystal structures of tyrosine-phosphorylated human SH3 domains derived from the Abelson-family kinases ABL1 and ABL2 at 1.6 and 1.4 Å resolutions, respectively. The structures revealed that simultaneous phosphorylation of Tyr-89 and Tyr-134 in ABL1, or the homologous residues Tyr-116 and Tyr-161 in ABL2 induce only minor structural perturbations. Instead, the phosphate groups sterically blocked the ligand-binding grooves, thereby strongly inhibiting the interaction with proline-rich peptide ligands. Although some crystal contact surfaces involving phosphotyrosines suggested the possibility of tyrosine-phosphorylation induced dimerization, we excluded this possibility by using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and NMR relaxation analyses. Extensive analysis of relevant databases and literature revealed that the residues phosphorylated in our model systems are not only well conserved in other human SH3 domains, but that the corresponding tyrosines are known phosphorylation sites in vivo in many cases. We conclude that tyrosine phosphorylation might be a mechanism involved in the regulation of the human SH3 interactome