Evaluation of stem cell reserve using serial bone marrow transplantation and competitive repopulation in a murine model of chronic hemolytic anemia

• Published in: Experimental hematology Vol. 16; no. 8; p. 653
• Main Authors: Maggio-Price, L, Wolf, N S, Priestley, G V, Pietrzyk, M E, Bernstein, S E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands 01.09.1988
• Subjects: Aging; Animals; Bone Marrow - pathology; Bone Marrow - radiation effects; Bone Marrow Transplantation; Cell Cycle - radiation effects; Chronic Disease; Colony-Forming Units Assay; Disease Models, Animal; Erythrocyte Count; Female; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation; Hematopoietic Stem Cells - pathology; Hematopoietic Stem Cells - radiation effects; Male; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Mice, Mutant Strains; Pancytopenia - blood; Pancytopenia - pathology; Radiation Chimera; Spherocytosis, Hereditary - blood; Spherocytosis, Hereditary - pathology; Spherocytosis, Hereditary - physiopathology; Spleen - pathology
• ISSN: 0301-472X

Serial transplantation and competitive repopulation were used to evaluate any loss of self-replicative capacity of bone marrow stem cells in a mouse model with increased and persistent hemopoietic demands. Congenic marrows from old control and from young and old mice with hereditary spherocytic anemia (sphha/sphha) were serially transplanted at 35-day intervals into normal irradiated recipients. Old anemic marrow failed or reverted to recipient karyotype at a mean of 3.5 transplants, and young anemic marrow reverted at a mean of 4.0 transplants, whereas controls did so at a mean of 5.0 transplants. In a competitive assay in which a mixture of anemic and control marrow was transplanted, the anemic marrow persisted to 10 months following transplantation; anemic marrow repopulation was greater if anemic marrow sex matched with the host. It is possible that lifelong stress of severe anemia decreases stem cell reserve in the anemic sphha/sphha mouse marrow. However, marginal differences in serial transplantation number and the maintenance of anemic marrow in a competition assay would suggest that marrow stem cells, under prolonged stress, are capable of exhibiting good repopulating and self-replicating abilities.