Loss of the Homeodomain Transcription Factor Prep1 Perturbs Adult Hematopoiesis in the Bone Marrow

PLoS One. 2015 Aug 18;10(8):e0136107. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0136107. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Prep1, a TALE-family homeodomain transcription factor, has been demonstrated to play a critical role in embryonic hematopoiesis, as its insufficiency caused late embryonic lethality associated with defective hematopoiesis and angiogenesis. In the present study, we generated hematopoietic- and endothelial cell-specific Prep1-deficient mice and demonstrated that expression of Prep1 in the hematopoietic cell compartment is not essential for either embryonic or adult hematopoiesis, although its absence causes significant hematopoietic abnormalities in the adult bone marrow. Loss of Prep1 promotes cell cycling of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPC), leading to the expansion of the HSPC pool. Prep1 deficiency also results in the accumulation of lineage-committed progenitors, increased monocyte/macrophage differentiation and arrested erythroid maturation. Maturation of T cells and B cells is also perturbed in Prep-deficient mice. These findings provide novel insight into the pleiotropic roles of Prep1 in adult hematopoiesis that were unrecognized in previous studies using germline Prep1 hypomorphic mice.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Apoptosis
  • B-Lymphocytes / metabolism
  • B-Lymphocytes / pathology*
  • Blotting, Western
  • Bone Marrow / metabolism
  • Bone Marrow / pathology*
  • Cell Differentiation
  • Cell Proliferation
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
  • Hematopoiesis / physiology*
  • Hematopoietic Stem Cells / metabolism
  • Hematopoietic Stem Cells / pathology*
  • Homeodomain Proteins / physiology*
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Mice, Knockout
  • RNA, Messenger / genetics
  • Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • T-Lymphocytes / metabolism
  • T-Lymphocytes / pathology*

Substances

  • Homeodomain Proteins
  • Pknox1 protein, mouse
  • RNA, Messenger

Grants and funding

This work has been supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (25111513, 25292194 and 15H01163 to R. G.) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan.