Age-dependent modulation of vascular niches for haematopoietic stem cells

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Abstract

Blood vessels define local microenvironments in the skeletal system, play crucial roles in osteogenesis and provide niches for haematopoietic stem cells. The properties of niche-forming vessels and their changes in the ageing organism remain incompletely understood. Here we show that Notch signalling in endothelial cells leads to the expansion of haematopoietic stem cell niches in bone, which involves increases in CD31-positive capillaries and platelet-derived growth factor receptor-β (PDGFRβ)-positive perivascular cells, arteriole formation and elevated levels of cellular stem cell factor. Although endothelial hypoxia-inducible factor signalling promotes some of these changes, it fails to enhance vascular niche function because of a lack of arterialization and expansion of PDGFRβ-positive cells. In ageing mice, niche-forming vessels in the skeletal system are strongly reduced but can be restored by activation of endothelial Notch signalling. These findings indicate that vascular niches for haematopoietic stem cells are part of complex, age-dependent microenvironments involving multiple cell populations and vessel subtypes.

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Coupling of angiogenesis and osteogenesis by a specific vessel subtype in bone.

Anjali P. Kusumbe, Saravana K. Ramasamy, Ralf H. Adams (2014)

The mammalian skeletal system harbours a hierarchical system of mesenchymal stem cells, osteoprogenitors and osteoblasts sustaining lifelong bone formation. Osteogenesis is indispensable for the homeostatic renewal of bone as well as regenerative fracture healing, but these processes frequently decline in ageing organisms, leading to loss of bone mass and increased fracture incidence. Evidence indicates that the growth of blood vessels in bone and osteogenesis are coupled, but relatively little is known about the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms. Here we identify a new capillary subtype in the murine skeletal system with distinct morphological, molecular and functional properties. These vessels are found in specific locations, mediate growth of the bone vasculature, generate distinct metabolic and molecular microenvironments, maintain perivascular osteoprogenitors and couple angiogenesis to osteogenesis. The abundance of these vessels and associated osteoprogenitors was strongly reduced in bone from aged animals, and pharmacological reversal of this decline allowed the restoration of bone mass.

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Endothelial Notch activity promotes angiogenesis and osteogenesis in bone.

Saravana Ramasamy, Anjali P Kusumbe, Lin Wang … (2014)

Blood vessel growth in the skeletal system and osteogenesis seem to be coupled, suggesting the existence of molecular crosstalk between endothelial and osteoblastic cells. Understanding the nature of the mechanisms linking angiogenesis and bone formation should be of great relevance for improved fracture healing or prevention of bone mass loss. Here we show that vascular growth in bone involves a specialized, tissue-specific form of angiogenesis. Notch signalling promotes endothelial cell proliferation and vessel growth in postnatal long bone, which is the opposite of the well-established function of Notch and its ligand Dll4 in the endothelium of other organs and tumours. Endothelial-cell-specific and inducible genetic disruption of Notch signalling in mice not only impaired bone vessel morphology and growth, but also led to reduced osteogenesis, shortening of long bones, chondrocyte defects, loss of trabeculae and decreased bone mass. On the basis of a series of genetic experiments, we conclude that skeletal defects in these mutants involved defective angiocrine release of Noggin from endothelial cells, which is positively regulated by Notch. Administration of recombinant Noggin, a secreted antagonist of bone morphogenetic proteins, restored bone growth and mineralization, chondrocyte maturation, the formation of trabeculae and osteoprogenitor numbers in endothelial-cell-specific Notch pathway mutants. These findings establish a molecular framework coupling angiogenesis, angiocrine signals and osteogenesis, which may prove significant for the development of future therapeutic applications.

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Deep imaging of bone marrow shows non-dividing stem cells are mainly perisinusoidal

Melih Acar, Kiranmai S Kocherlakota, Malea Murphy … (2015)

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) reside in a perivascular niche but the location remains controversial 1 . HSCs are rare and few can be found in thin tissue sections 2,3 or upon live imaging 4 , making it difficult to comprehensively localize dividing and non-dividing HSCs. We discovered that α-catulinGFP/+ was expressed by only 0.02% of bone marrow hematopoietic cells, including virtually all HSCs. One in 3.5 α-catulin-GFP+c-kit+ cells gave long-term multilineage reconstitution of irradiated mice, indicating that α-catulin-GFP+c-kit+ cells contain HSCs with a purity comparable to the best markers available. We were able to optically clear the bone marrow to perform deep confocal imaging, making it possible to image thousands of α-catulin-GFP+c-kit+ cells and to digitally reconstruct large segments of bone marrow. The distribution of α-catulin-GFP+c-kit+ cells indicated that HSCs were more common in central marrow than near bone surfaces and in the diaphysis relative to the metaphysis. Nearly all HSCs contacted Leptin Receptor+ and Cxcl12high niche cells. Approximately 85% of HSCs were within 10μm of a sinusoidal blood vessel. Most HSCs were distant from arterioles, transition zone vessels, and bone surfaces. This was true of Ki-67+ dividing HSCs and Ki-67− non-dividing HSCs. Dividing and non-dividing HSCs thus reside mainly in perisinusoidal niches with Leptin Receptor+Cxcl12high cells throughout the bone marrow.