Rac1 Gtpase Promotes Hematopoietic Stem Cell Migration, Self-Renewal and Participates in Leukemia Initiation and Maintenance

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a hematological malignancy resulting from the transformation of normal hematopoietic stem cell (HSC). Except for the intrinsic factors, it is acceptable that some extrinsic events from microenvironment could be the important co-factors in the development of leukemia. In addition to the specific component, as an extrinsic factor, interaction between HSC and bone marrow niche regulates HSCs fate. Disruption on the interactions also influences hematopoiesis. It has become evident that Rac members of Rho GTPases family are important molecules regulating HSCs interactions with hematopoietic microenvironment and activation of Rac1 are observed in a serials of leukemia cells. We previously reported that Rac1 is highly expressed in leukemia cells and found that activation of Rac1 GTPase lead to an increase in leukemia cells migration, chemotherapy resistance, quiescence and trafficking to bone marrow niche. Furthermore, we showed that Rac1 mediated the localization in niche is further attributable to the maintenance of LSC quiescence.

In this study, we investigated the effects of active Rac1 GTPase in the transformation of HSC and determined if the activation of Rac1GTPase could promote the interaction of HSC with osteoblastic niche and further contribute to the leukomogenesis. By forced expression of a constitutively active form of Rac1 GTPase (Rac1 V12）in c-Kit+ hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell, we show that activation of Rac1 GTPase promotes cell migration, adhesion and colony formation, and also lead to an increase in the frequency of cells in quiescent state. Gene expression analysis shows that activation of Rac1 up-regulates the expression of several molecules that mediated the interaction of LSC with osteoblastic niche, as well as the cell cycle inhibitors such as p21, p27, and p57. Furthermore, we established a mouse model of acute myeloid leukemia by transduction murine c-kit⁺HSPC with Rac1 V12 combined with AML1-ETO9a, followed by transplantation into lethally irradiated mice. To investigate the role of Rac1 activation in leukemogenesis in vivo, we treated the AML1-ETO-Rac1 leukemia cells with Rac1 GTPase inhibitor EHT1846 and then transplanted into recipient mice. After 40 μM EHT1846 treatment, no engraftment of AML cells in recipient mice was observed. Kaplan-Meier analyses indicate that treatment with EHT1846 significantly prolongs survival of the transplanted mice. 20μM dose of EHT1846 was less effective.

These data indicated that active Rac1 might be an important contributing factor to leukemogenesis. In addition, short-term homing assays showed that EHT 1846 treatment causes a marked inhibition of AML cell homing into both bone marrow and spleen as compared with controls, indicating that Rac1 mediated homing could be an important step and participated in the leukemogensis. Altogether, our data suggest that activation of Rac1 GTPase is critical for the interaction between HSCs with BM niche and even be contributed to leukemia development.