Hematopoietic Stem Cells Have an Intrinsic Expansion Limit

Abstract 4749

Hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation is the first successful cellular therapy and remains the only treatment providing long-term cure in acute myeloblastic leukemia. At the apex of the hematopoietic system, quiescent HSCs are spared by chemotherapeutic treatments that target proliferating cells and therefore can regenerate the entire blood system of a patient after drug exposure. Nevertheless, the consequence of repeated chemotherapy regimen on HSC function remains to be clarified. We previously showed that Scl/Tal1 gene dosage regulates HSC quiescence and functions when transplanted at limiting dilutions (Lacombe et al., 2010). In the present study, we investigate how massive expansion in vivo influences stem cell functions. To address this question, we optimized a protocol based on 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), an antimetabolite that has been used to treat colon, rectum, and head and neck cancers. In addition, we used Scl^+/− mice to address the role of Scl in controlling HSCs expansion post-5-FU. We show that within 7 days following 5-FU treatment, HSCs exit quiescence and enter the cell cycle. To deplete cycling HSCs, we injected a second dose of 5-FU and showed that the stem cell pool was disseminated. Nonetheless, the remaining HSCs proliferated extensively to re-establish the HSC pool, which was twice larger than that of untreated mice. At this point, most HSCs have exited the cell cycle and were back to quiescence. Despite a near normal stem cell pool size and a quiescent status, HSCs from these 5-FU treated mice could not compete against untreated cells to regenerate the host in transplantation assays. Furthermore, we show that this extensive proliferation in vivo severely impaired the clonal expansion of individual HSC as measured by the mean activity of stem cell (MAS). Our results demonstrate that HSCs lose their competitive potential after two 5-FU treatments, suggesting that HSCs have an intrinsic expansion limit beyond which their regenerative potential is impaired. In addition, Scl is haplodeficient for cell cycle entry and cell division but Scl gene dosage does not affect this expansion limit. Therefore, our data dissociate the control of HSC expansion under extensive proliferative stress from cell cycle control during steady state. We surmise that chemotherapy regimen based on repeated administration of 5-FU or other antimetabolites are likely to severely impair long-term stem cell functions.