Mutated recombinant human heavy-chain ferritins and myelosuppression in vitro and in vivo: a link between ferritin ferroxidase activity and biological function.

Human heavy-chain (H-) ferritin muteins obtained by oligonucleotide site-directed mutagenesis, together with wild-type recombinant human H- and light-chain (L-) ferritins, were evaluated for in vitro effects on the suppression of human bone marrow myeloid progenitor cells and for in vivo effects on marrow and splenic myelopoiesis in C3H/HeJ mice. The 10 H-ferritin muteins exhibited alterations of various regions of the molecule, including ones exposed on the outer surface, on the inner cavity, and on the hydrophilic and hydrophobic channels and of the four-alpha-helix bundle forming the subunit structure. They were stable and were electrophoretically analogous to wild-type H-ferritin. The muteins showed in vitro and in vivo myelosuppressive activity analogous to wild type, except for mutein 222, which was totally inactive and which lacked ferroxidase activity. Recombinant human L-ferritin, devoid of ferroxidase activity, was also inactive as a suppressor. The results demonstrate that H-ferritin myelosuppressive and ferroxidase activities are linked. One possibility is that ferroxidase activity may interfere with the cellular uptake of transferrin iron that is needed for cell proliferation, an interpretation consistent with the presently described ability of hemin to overcome H-ferritin suppressive effects.     

Influence of murine mast cell growth factor (c-kit ligand) on colony formation by mouse marrow hematopoietic progenitor cells.

Purified natural and recombinant murine mast cell growth factor (MGF, a c-kit ligand) were evaluated alone and in combination with other cytokines for effects in vitro on colony formation by multipotential (CFU-GEMM), erythroid (BFU-E) and granulocyte-macrophage (CFU-GM) progenitor cells from BDF1 mouse bone marrow. Both preparations stimulated Epo-dependent CFU-GEMM and enhanced Epo-dependent BFU-E colony numbers and size. MGF had some stimulating activity for CFU-GM. When used in combination with plateau concentrations of pokeweed mitogen mouse spleen cell conditioned medium or granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (CSF), MGF enhanced in greater than additive fashion colony formation by CFU-GM. MGF also enhanced the size of colonies formed, an enhancement greatest for colonies containing granulocytes and macrophages. MGF did not enhance Macrophage-CSF stimulated colony numbers or size. MGF seems to be an early acting cytokine with preferential effects on the growth of more immature hematopoietic progenitor cells.     

Recombinant human colony stimulating factor-granulocyte/macrophage and -granulocyte,but not macrophage induce the development of a respiratory burst in primary human myeloid leukemic cells in vitro

Summary Respiratory burst develops in myeloid blast cells if they differentiate functionally along the monocytic or granulocytic lineage. Using the nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) assay we studied the effects of recombinant human granulocyte/macrophage colony stimulating factor (rhuGM-CSF), rhuG-CSF and rhuM-CSF on development of respiratory burst activity in primary blast cells from patients with myeloid leukemia. Assessing suspension cultures containing cells from patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML, n=13) or myeloidblast crisis (myBC) of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML, n=5) it was found that the percentage of NBT positive cells was increased by at least 20% as compared to control cultures by rhuGM-CSF in 6/17 cases, by rhuG-CSF in 7/17 cases and by rhuM-CSF in 0/16 cases, representing in responders a mean increase of 267% and 270% in the absolute number of NBT positive cells by rhuGM-CSF and rhuG-CSF, respectively. Morphological examination of cultured cells from responders, as compared to controls, showed decreased blast cell content but generally no evidence of terminal differentiation. The demonstration of Auer rods in NBT positive cells indicates that respiratory burst developed in a leukemic clone. These findings may be of physiological, pathophysiological and clinical relevance.     

Augmentation of human monocyte chemiluminescence by iron-saturated lactoferrin

The effect of Fe3+ bound lactoferrin (LF) on chemiluminescence (CL) generation in human monocytes in the presence and absence of opsonized zymosan was examined. Fe3+ bound LF (10(-6) or 10(-7) M) augmented the CL response in the presence but not the absence of zymosan. In contrast, Apo LF, Fe3+ bound transferrin and Fe3+ itself had no significant effect. It appears that the effect of LF on zymosan-induced chemiluminescence is dependent on iron and is receptor specific. The augmentation of CL by LF was inhibited by superoxide dismutase (SOD) and ETYA (fatty acid cyclooxygenase and lipoxygenase inhibitor), but not indomethacin (fatty acid cyclooxygenase inhibitor). Thus the enhancement of CL by LF depends on superoxide anion production and is related to the lipoxygenase pathway. The significance of this observation in terms of microbicidal or tumoricidal mechanisms remains to be determined.     

SARS: just another viral acronym?

Recent observations and experimental evidence have purported that a virus causes SARS, but such viruses have been isolated in only less than half of SARS patients in some studies and virologist Vincent Plummer of Winnipeg's National Microbiology Laboratory found that indeed 1 in 5 perfectly healthy Canadians with a history of recent travel to Asia had the virus. Therefore SARS microbiologic origins remain unclear. Outbreaks of multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis and the atypical mycobacteria simulate SARS on clinical, radiologic, epidemiologic, and diagnostic laboratory grounds and it is only logical then to include them in the differential to find a definitive cause and cure for SARS.     

The effects in vivo of purified preparations of murine macrophage colony stimulating factor-1, recombinant murine granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor and natural and recombinant murine interleukin 3 without and with pretreatment of mice with purified iron-saturated human lactoferrin

The influence of purified natural colony stimulating factor-1 (CSF-1), purified recombinant granulocyte-macrophage (GM)-CSF, purified recombinant interleukin 3 (IL3) and natural IL3 were assessed in mice that were untreated or pretreated with purified iron-saturated human lactoferrin (LF) in order to first suppress myelopoiesis in the mice. S1/S1d mice responded to recombinant GM-CSF and recombinant IL3 in a manner similar to the response of their +/+ littermates. These 4 factors increased the cycling status of hematopoietic progenitors in vivo. The effects were more noticeable if myelopoiesis was first decreased by LF. The effects do not appear to be due to endotoxin contamination. It cannot be discerned from these studies whether the effects are direct ones on the progenitor cells or indirect ones mediated through growth-factor releasing accessory cells. It is possible that effects can be both direct and indirect.     

Identification of parameters required for efficient lentiviral vector transduction and engraftment of human cord blood CD34(+) NOD/SCID-repopulating cells

OBJECTIVE: Human cord blood (CB) is a potential source of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) for gene therapy to treat patients with hematopoietic disorders. However, limited numbers of CB CD34(+) cells, low transduction efficiency with lentiviral vectors (LVs), and low engraftment efficiency of nonobese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficient (NOD/SCID) repopulating cells (SRC), a measure of HSC, are blocks to this procedure. To optimize culture and transduction conditions, we compared various lengths of time for prestimulation before transduction, transduction duration, and posttransduction cell culture. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used a LV to transduce human CB CD34(+) cells followed by engraftment into NOD/SCID mice. We evaluated the effects of prestimulation and transduction time and optimized ex vivo cell culture duration before transplantation. RESULTS: We were able to achieve up to 40% transduction efficiency and up to 50% engraftment efficiency of SRC in CB CD34(+) cells when CB CD34(+) cells were either not prestimulated or prestimulated in 1% fetal bovine serum medium for 1 hour, followed by 5 hours transduction and 3 days culture in a cocktail of growth factors after transduction. No apparent functional changes of CB CD34(+) cells were noted under these conditions. CONCLUSION: This gene-transduction/cell-expansion protocol is the first systematic study to optimize prestimulation time, transduction time, and, very importantly, ex vivo culture time after transduction, and may be of use for LV gene transduction in a gene therapy setting.     

Influence of T-lymphocytes and lactoferrin on the survival-promoting effects of IL-1 and IL-6 on human bone marrow granulocyte-macrophage and erythroid progenitor cells

Purified recombinant human (rhu) interleukin (IL)-1 alpha, rhuIL-6, iron saturated lactoferrin (LF), and T-lymphocytes were assessed for their effects on the survival of granulocyte-macrophage (granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming units, CFU-GM) and erythroid (erythroid burst-forming units, BFU-E) progenitor cells from human low-density (LD) and nonadherent LD T-lymphocyte-depleted (NALT-) bone marrow (BM) cells. Colony-stimulating factor (CSF) deprivation studies showed that 10 ng/ml IL-1 alpha could promote the survival of CFU-GM and BFU-E from NALT- BM cells. Concentrations of 1 ng/ml IL-1 alpha and 1-100 ng/ml IL-6 alone could not promote progenitor cell survival from NALT- BM cells; however, concentrations of 1 ng/ml each of IL-1 alpha and IL-6 could synergize to promote the survival of CFU-GM but not of BFU-E. The combination of these low concentrations of IL-1 alpha and IL-6 could, however, support the survival of BFU-E in the presence of purified T-lymphocytes. LF could decrease the survival of CFU-GM and BFU-E from LD but not from NALT- BM cells, apparently due to the inhibition of IL-1 release from monocytes in this cell population. The suppressive effect of LF on the survival of those progenitor cells was abolished by concentrations of 10 ng/ml IL-1 alpha or 1 ng/ml each of IL-1 alpha and IL-6. These results demonstrate that the survival of human marrow CFU-GM and BFU-E can be influenced by IL-1, IL-6, LF, and T-lymphocytes.     

Acidic isoferritins and E-type prostaglandins in sources of colony stimulatory factors mask detection of cycling granulocyte-macrophage progenitor cells

The effect of granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulatory factors (GM- CSF), acidic isoferritins, and E-type prostaglandins on the detection of the cycle status of human granulocyte-macrophage progenitor cells (CFU-GM) was investigated. Bone marrow cells were pulse-treated with control medium or high specific activity tritiated thymidine [3HTdr) and subsequently plated over feeder layers containing mononuclear blood leukocytes prepared in the absence or presence of anti-acidic isoferritins and/or indomethacin, or plated in the presence of medium conditioned by placental cell or GCT-conditioned media free of acidic isoferritins and prostaglandin-E. The presence of anti-acidic isoferritins and/or indomethacin in the blood leukocyte feeder layers increased the detectable stimulatory capacity of these cells and permitted detection of a larger proportion of marrow CFU-GM in cycle than in control cultures. The cycle status was not influenced by GM-CSF in conditioned medium regardless of the dilution of conditioned medium used to stimulate colony formation. This suggests that GM-CSF, supplied to the cells after treatment with 3HTdr, does not itself influence the detection of CFU-GM in cycle, but using sources of GM-CSF that contain acidic isoferritins or prostaglandin-E will underestimate the actual number of CFU-GM in S-phase.