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Murine stromal cells producing hyper-interleukin-6 and Flt3 ligand support expansion of early human hematopoietic progenitor cells without need of exogenous growth factors

Leukemia volume 16, pages 2122–2128 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Expansion of primitive hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC) is a major challenge in stem cell biology. Stimulation by growth factors (GF) is essential for proliferation of HPC, while the role of stromal cell coculture for maintenance of progenitor/stem cell potential is unclear. We evaluated the potential of a murine stromal cell layer providing hematopoietic GF to support expansion of human CD34+ cells. Murine MS-5 cells were transfected with the cDNA encoding huFlt3 ligand and the interleukin6/sinterleukin-6R fusion protein hyper-IL-6. Expansion of CFC and week6 CAFC was at least as efficient in transfected clones compared to control cocultures supported with exogenous GF. Cell numbers reached 17.5- to 62.3- (day 14) and 17.4- to 92.4-fold (day 21) of input cells. Expansion of CFU-GM/Mix was 4.0- to 12.8-fold (day 14) and 4.9- to 11.7-fold (day 21). Primitive week6 CAFC were expanded up to 6.5-fold (day 14) and 6.2-fold (day 21) without exogenous GF. When direct contact of HPC and stromal cells was inhibited, a loss of CFC and much more of CAFC potential was observed with unaffected overall cell proliferation. Here, we show the generation of GF producing murine stromal cells which efficiently support early hematopoiesis without exogenous GF. Direct stromal cell–HPC contact is advantageous for maintenance of differentiation potential.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Svenja Schewe and Monika Wimmer for expert technical assistance in cell culture, Christian Meyer zum Büschenfelde for help in the plasmid construction, Rebecca Grundler for providing the 32DFlt3 cells and Robert Oostendorp for critical discussion and review of the manuscript. This work was supported by a grant from the Technical University of Munich (KKF 8732567) and a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB 456).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. III Department of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    U Keller, KS Götze, J Duyster, B Schmidt & C Peschel

  2. Department of Biochemistry, Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, Kiel, Germany

    S Rose-John

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Keller, U., Götze, K., Duyster, J. et al. Murine stromal cells producing hyper-interleukin-6 and Flt3 ligand support expansion of early human hematopoietic progenitor cells without need of exogenous growth factors. Leukemia 16, 2122–2128 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2402660

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