Project description:Terminal differentiation of mammalian erythroid progenitors involves 4-5 cell divisions and induction of many erythroid important genes, followed by chromatin and nuclear condensation and enucleation. The protein levels of c-myc (Myc) are reduced dramatically during late stage erythroid maturation, coinciding with cell cycle arrest in G1-phase and enucleation, suggesting possible roles for c-myc in either or both of these processes. Here we demonstrate that ectopic Myc expression affects terminal erythroid maturation in a dose-dependent manner. Expression of Myc at physiological levels did not affect erythroid differentiation or cell cycle shutdown, but specifically blocked erythroid nuclear condensation and enucleation. Myc prevented deacetylation of several lysine residues in histones H3 and H4 that are normally deacetylated during erythroid maturation. When over-expressed at levels higher than the physiological range, Myc blocked erythroid differentiation and the cells continued to proliferate in cytokine-free, serum-containing culture medium with an early erythroblast morphology. These studies reveal an important dose-dependent function of Myc in regulating terminal maturation in mammalian erythroid cells. Our findings further support the emerging notion that Myc regulates chromatin structure by regulating global histone acetylation states. Five groups with three biological replicates in each.
Project description:Terminal differentiation of mammalian erythroid progenitors involves 4-5 cell divisions and induction of many erythroid important genes, followed by chromatin and nuclear condensation and enucleation. The protein levels of c-myc (Myc) are reduced dramatically during late stage erythroid maturation, coinciding with cell cycle arrest in G1-phase and enucleation, suggesting possible roles for c-myc in either or both of these processes. Here we demonstrate that ectopic Myc expression affects terminal erythroid maturation in a dose-dependent manner. Expression of Myc at physiological levels did not affect erythroid differentiation or cell cycle shutdown, but specifically blocked erythroid nuclear condensation and enucleation. Myc prevented deacetylation of several lysine residues in histones H3 and H4 that are normally deacetylated during erythroid maturation. When over-expressed at levels higher than the physiological range, Myc blocked erythroid differentiation and the cells continued to proliferate in cytokine-free, serum-containing culture medium with an early erythroblast morphology. These studies reveal an important dose-dependent function of Myc in regulating terminal maturation in mammalian erythroid cells. Our findings further support the emerging notion that Myc regulates chromatin structure by regulating global histone acetylation states.
Project description:Proteasome inhibition constitutes a cornerstone of multiple myeloma (MM) treatment, with bortezomib, carfilzomib and ixazomib approved for clinical use. We observed a consistent and highly significant increase in the reticulocyte count during treatment with carfilzomib-based regimens in patients with relapsed MM, an observation not made in a matched cohort of bortezomib-treated patients. As this increased reticulocytosis was neither associated with elevated hemoglobin levels nor with hemolysis, we subsequently performed in vitro experiments to unravel the underlying mechanisms of this clinical observation. While carfilzomib did not affect erythroid differentiation of CD34+ hematopoietic progenitor cells, both continuous and pulse exposure to carfilzomib significantly impaired terminal maturation of purified primary reticulocytes towards erythrocytes. These results indicate that carfilzomib significantly impairs terminal erythroid maturation, independent of erythroid commitment, expansion or differentiation. Our results report the first pharmacologically induced delay in erythroid maturation as a mechanism for carfilzomib-induced reticulocytosis in MM patients. Quantitative proteomics using LC-MS/MS were performed to assess whether carfilzomib treatment alters the protein composition of reticulocytes
Project description:Primary murine fetal liver cells were freshly isolated from day e14.5 livers and then sorted for successive differentiation stages by Ter119 and CD71 surface expression (ranging from double-negative CFU-Es to Ter-119 positive enucleated erythrocytes) [Zhang, et al. Blood. 2003 Dec 1; 102(12):3938-46]. RNA isolated from each freshly isolated, stage-sorted population was reverse-transcribed, labelled, and then hybridized onto 3' oligo Affymetrix arrays. Important erythroid specific genes as well as the proteins that regulate them were elucidated through this profiling based on coexpression and differential expression patterns as well as by extracting specific GO categories of genes (such as DNA-binding proteins). Abstract (submitted paper): rationale for expression profiling Gene-targeting experiments report that the homeodomain-interacting protein kinases 1 and 2, Hipk1 and Hipk2, are essential but redundant in hematopoietic developmentâbecause Hipk1/Hipk2 double-deficient animals exhibit severe defects in hematopoiesis and vasculogenesis while the single knockouts do not. These serine-threonine kinases phosphorylate, and consequently modify the functions of, several important hematopoietic transcription factors and cofactors. Here we show that Hipk2 knockdown alone plays a significant role in terminal fetal liver erythroid differentiation. Hipk1 and Hipk2 are highly induced during primary mouse fetal liver erythropoiesis. Specific knockdown of Hipk2 inhibits terminal erythroid cell proliferationâexplained in part by impaired cell cycle progression as well as increased apoptosisâand terminal enucleation as well as the accumulation of hemoglobin. Hipk2 knockdown also reduces the transcription of many genes involved in proliferation and apoptosis as well as important, erythroid-specific genes involved in hemoglobin biosynthesisâsuch as alpha-globin and mitoferrin 1âdemonstrating that Hipk2 plays an important role in some but not all aspects of normal terminal erythroid differentiation.