cells Article Osteopontin is An Important Regulative Component of the Fetal Bone Marrow Hematopoietic Stem Cell Niche Huimin Cao 1,2, Benjamin Cao 1,2 , Chad K. Heazlewood 1,2, Melanie Domingues 1,2, Xuan Sun 1,2, Emmanuel Debele 1, Narelle E. McGregor 3, Natalie A. Sims 3,4, Shen Y. Heazlewood 1,2 and Susan K. Nilsson 1,2,* 1 Biomedical Manufacturing Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia 2 Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia 3 St. Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research, Fitzroy, VIC 3065, Australia 4 The University of Melbourne, Department of Medicine at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Fitzroy, VIC 3065, Australia * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +61-3-9518-5917 Received: 31 May 2019; Accepted: 22 August 2019; Published: 27 August 2019 Abstract: Osteopontin (OPN) is an important component in both bone and blood regulation, functioning as a bridge between the two. Previously, thrombin-cleaved osteopontin (trOPN), the dominant form of OPN in adult bone marrow (BM), was demonstrated to be a critical negative regulator of adult hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) via interactions with α4β1 and α9β1 integrins. We now demonstrate OPN is also required for fetal hematopoiesis in maintaining the HSC and progenitor pool in fetal BM. Specifically, we showed that trOPN is highly expressed in fetal BM and its receptors, α4β1 and α9β1 integrins, are both highly expressed and endogenously activated on fetal BM HSC and progenitors. Notably, the endogenous activation of integrins expressed by HSC was attributed to high concentrations of three divalent metal cations, Ca2+, Mg2+ and Mn2+, which were highly prevalent in developing fetal BM.