Kinetic impairment of haemopoietic stem cells in experimentally induced leukemia and aplastic anemia: an inverse correlation

Abstract

The production of blood cells from bone marrow (BM) hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) is regulated by a number of cytokines and growth factors that influence cell survival; differentiation, proliferation and apoptosis in health and supposedly, such mechanisms are deregulated in diseased conditions. As far as cellular kinetics is concerned HSCs are relatively quiescent in adults, have the ability to replicate symmetrically and asymmetrically and predictably exhibit multi-lineage hematopoietic reconstitution potential. HSC drive hematopoiesis and homeostasis by contracting and expanding the pool of hematopoietic cells in the bone marrow. In mouse they can be identified immunophenotypically as Sca1+ c-kit cells. In aplastic anemia a drastic decline in the marrow efficacy to produce mature blood cells leads to bone marrow failure. In contrast, in leukemia hyper stimulated marrow leads to deregulated differentiation of immature hematopoietic stem cells with increased self-proliferation potential. In our experimental set up, we induced aplastic anemia by injecting busulfan and cyclophosphamide and leukemia by N-N' ethylnitrosourea intraperitoneally in inbred swiss albino mice. Indeed, HSCs and haematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) are vulnerable target for such disease oriented dysregulation which bears close correlation with the bone marrow microenvironmental damage. The present study aims at evaluating the possible mechanism(s) of deregulation in the bone marrow physiology with special reference to HSC surface receptor expression, cellular granularity, cell cycle status and overall marrow architecture. The investigations made so far revealed an interesting correlation between disease initiation and specific cytokinetic involvement of HSC in the BM microenvironment with particular reference to leukemia and aplastic anemia.