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Cholesterol efflux in megakaryocyte progenitors suppresses platelet production and thrombocytosis

Nature Medicine volume 19, pages 586–594 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

Platelets have a key role in atherogenesis and its complications. Both hypercholesterolemia and increased platelet production promote atherothrombosis; however, a potential link between altered cholesterol homeostasis and platelet production has not been explored. Here we show that transplantation of bone marrow deficient in ABCG4, a transporter of unknown function, into Ldlr−/− mice resulted in thrombocytosis, accelerated thrombosis and atherosclerosis. Although not detected in atherosclerotic lesions, Abcg4 was highly expressed in bone marrow megakaryocyte progenitors (MkPs). Abcg4−/− MkPs had defective cholesterol efflux to high-density lipoprotein (HDL), increased cell surface expression of the thrombopoietin (TPO) receptor (c-MPL) and enhanced proliferation. These consequences of ABCG4 deficiency seemed to reflect disruption of negative feedback regulation of c-MPL signaling by the E3 ligase c-CBL and the cholesterol-sensing LYN kinase. HDL infusion reduced platelet counts in Ldlr−/− mice and in a mouse model of myeloproliferative neoplasm in an ABCG4-dependent fashion. HDL infusions may offer a new approach to reducing atherothrombotic events associated with increased platelet production.

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Figure 1: ABCG4 deficiency in bone marrow increases platelet count and accelerates atherosclerosis and thrombosis.
Figure 2: Abcg4 is highly expressed in MkPs and regulates megakaryopoiesis and c-MPL expression.
Figure 3: ABCG4 deficiency decreases cholesterol efflux and increases membrane cholesterol content and proliferation of MkPs.
Figure 4: Increased MkP c-MPL expression and proliferation in ABCG4 deficiency involves altered activity of c-CBL and LYN.
Figure 5: rHDL suppresses platelet production in an ABCG4-dependent fashion in vivo.

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Acknowledgements

A.J.M. was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association (12POST11890019). This study was supported by US National Institutes of Health grant HL107653 (A.R.T.). We thank A.L. DeFranco and C.A. Lowell of the University of California, San Francisco for providing Lyn−/− bone marrow cells and W. Tong of the University of Pennsylvania for providing the antibody to c-MPL for flow cytometry analysis.

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Author notes

  1. Andrew J Murphy and Nora Bijl: These authors contributed equally to this work.

  2. Alan R Tall and Nan Wang: These authors jointly directed this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Division of Molecular Medicine, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA

    Andrew J Murphy, Nora Bijl, Laurent Yvan-Charvet, Carrie B Welch, Alan R Tall & Nan Wang

  2. Department of Medicine, Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program and Leukemia Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, USA

    Neha Bhagwat & Ross L Levine

  3. Canadian Blood Services and the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, St. Michael's Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Adili Reheman, Yiming Wang & Heyu Ni

  4. Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Alfred Hospital/Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    James A Shaw

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Contributions

A.J.M., N. Bijl and N.W. conceived the study, designed, performed and analyzed the experiments and wrote the manuscript. L.Y.-C., C.B.W., N. Bhagwat, A.R., Y.W. and J.A.S. designed, performed and analyzed experiments. R.L.L. and H.N. provided intellectual input and assisted with the preparation of the manuscript. A.R.T. conceived the study and contributed to writing the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Nan Wang.

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Murphy, A., Bijl, N., Yvan-Charvet, L. et al. Cholesterol efflux in megakaryocyte progenitors suppresses platelet production and thrombocytosis. Nat Med 19, 586–594 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3150

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