Published OnlineFirst April 9, 2015; DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-14-3625
Cancer Tumor and Stem Cell Biology Research
SOCS2 Controls Proliferation and Stemness of Hematopoietic Cells under Stress Conditions and Its Deregulation Marks Unfavorable Acute Leukemias Caterina Vitali1, Claudia Bassani1, Claudia Chiodoni1, Elisa Fellini1, Carla Guarnotta2, Silvia Miotti1, Sabina Sangaletti1, Fabio Fuligni3, Loris De Cecco4, Pier P. Piccaluga3, Mario P. Colombo1, and Claudio Tripodo2
Abstract
Hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) promptly adapt hematopoi- MLL and BCR/ABL abnormalities, and correlate with the enrich- esis to stress conditions, such as infection and cancer, replenishing ment of genes belonging to hematopoietic and leukemic stemness bone marrow–derived circulating populations, while preserving signatures. In this setting, SOCS2 and its correlated genes are part the stem cell reservoir. SOCS2, a feedback inhibitor of JAK–STAT of regulatory networks fronted by IKZF1/Ikaros and MEF2C, two pathways, is expressed in most primitive HSC and is upregulated transcriptional regulators involved in normal and leukemic in response to STAT5-inducing cytokines. We demonstrate that hematopoiesis that have never been linked to SOCS2. Accord- Socs2 deficiency unleashes HSC proliferation in vitro, sustaining ingly, a comparison of murine wt and Socs2 / HSC gene expres- STAT5 phosphorylation in response to IL3, thrombopoietin, and sion in response to 5-FU revealed a significant overlap with the GM-CSF. In vivo, SOCS2 deficiency leads to unrestricted myelo- molecular programs that correlate with SOCS2 expression in poietic response to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and, in turn, induces leukemias, particularly with the oncogenic pathways and with exhaustion of long-term HSC function along serial bone marrow the IKZF1/Ikaros and MEF2C-predicted targets. Lentiviral gene transplantations. The emerging role of SOCS2 in HSC under stress transduction of murine hematopoietic precursors with Mef2c, but conditions prompted the investigation of malignant hematopoi- not with Ikzf1, induces Socs2 upregulation, unveiling a direct esis. High levels of SOCS2 characterize unfavorable subsets of control exerted by Mef2c over Socs2 expression. Cancer Res; 75 acute myeloid and lymphoblastic leukemias, such as those with (11); 2387–99. 2015 AACR.
Introduction flow of differentiated hematopoietic cells. Under hematopoietic stress, such as infections, traumata, myeloablation, and cancer, Hematopoiesis is a regulated process in which bone marrow HSC on one side proliferate to reconstitute the affected hemato- multipotent hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) are driven toward poietic pools or expand specific hematopoietic populations such self-renewal or differentiation (1). At the steady state, long-term as myeloid-derived suppressor cells in the presence of cancer; on HSC (LT-HSC) remain mostly quiescent and rarely divide to the other side, even in conditions of emergency hematopoiesis, produce short-term HSC (ST-HSC), multipotent precursor they do need to maintain the stem cell reservoir (3, 4). (MPP), and committed progenitors (2), ensuring a continuous HSC quiescence, activation, self-renewal, and differentiation under bone marrow stress are regulated by cytokines (5), includ- ing stem cell factor (SCF), IL3, thrombopoietin (TPO), erythro- 1Molecular Immunology Unit, Department of Experimental Oncology poietin (EPO), Flt3/Flk2 ligand (Flt3L), GM-CSF, G-CSF, and IL6. and Molecular Medicine, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Signal transduction of most hematopoietic cytokines passes Tumori, Milan, Italy. 2Department of Human Pathology, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy. 3Hematopathology Section, Department through the Janus-activated kinase (JAK) and signal transducer of Hematology and Oncology, S. Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, University and activator of transcription (STAT; ref. 5). Suppressor of cyto- 4 of Bologna, Bologna, Italy. Functional Genomics Core Facility, Fon- kine signaling (SOCS) family comprises eight members (SOCS1- dazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy. 7 and CIS) with similar structures, which are induced upon JAK/ Note: Supplementary data for this article are available at Cancer Research STAT activation and function as negative feedback. SOCS1 and Online (http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/). SOCS3 immunologic roles are widely recognized (6, 7). SOCS2 M.P. Colombo and C. Tripodo share senior authorship of this article. has been initially described as a regulator of the growth hormone– Corresponding Author: Mario P. Colombo, Molecular Immunology Unit, Depart- insulin-like growth factor 1 axis (8, 9) and only recently has been ment of Experimental Oncology and Molecular Medicine, Fondazione IRCCS recognized as controller of immunologic functions (10–12). Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Via Amadeo 42, 20133 Milan, Italy. Phone: 39-02- SOCS2 basal expression is higher in HSC (particularly LT-HSC) 23902252; Fax: 39-02-23903073; E-mail: than in differentiated populations (13–16), and it is upregulated [email protected] following STAT5 activation by hematopoietic cytokine stimula- doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-14-3625 tion (17) or following myeloablative 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) treat- 2015 American Association for Cancer Research. ment (18). Induction of Socs2 by G-CSF, IL3, GM-CSF, and EPO
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Vitali et al.
has been documented in cell lines and tissues, including the bone described in the Supplementary Data. Bead Chip Array Mou- marrow (19). seWG-6 v2 (Illumina) was used for transcriptome analysis. In hematologic malignancies (20–22), the JAK–STAT pathways Detailed procedures used for RNA extraction, cDNA amplifica- are frequently deregulated (10, 11), with oncogenic activation of tion, microarray, data preprocessing, and analysis are included in STAT3 and STAT5 in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and of the Supplementary Data. Gene expression data are deposited in STAT1 and STAT5 in pre-B acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) NCBI's Gene Expression Omnibus database (accession number and chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML; ref. 20), with potential GSE66065). involvement of SOCS2. Here, we have uncovered a novel role for SOCS2 in the Lentiviral production and infection of Lin cells regulation of HSC functions in settings of bone marrow myelo- The pReceiver-Lv215 lentiviral vectors containing the full- poietic stress response and, by thorough analysis of SOCS2 length open reading frame (ORF) cDNA of mouse Mef2c expression in human hematopoietic malignancies, we have iden- (NM_001170537) and Ikzf1 (NM_001025597) or the empty fi ti ed SOCS2 deregulation as part of a stemness-related molecular vector were purchased from GeneCopoeia. A third-generation signature characterizing unfavorable acute myeloid and lympho- packaging system involving the transfection of four plasmids in blastic leukemia subsets. the producer cells, namely two packaging plasmids (pMDLg/ pRRE and pRSV-REV), an envelope plasmid (pMD2-VSV-G), Materials and Methods and the lentiviral transfer vector, was used. Lentiviral stocks Mice were produced in 293T cells by Ca3PO4 cotransfection of the Socs2 / mice were obtained from Dr. C. Farquharson [The four plasmids. Supernatants were collected, passed through a 0.22-mm filter, and purified by ultracentrifugation as described Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, Roslin, United Kingdom] and back- previously (22). Lin cells isolated from wt mice were prestimu- crossed to C57BL/6NCrl for 10 generations. Six- to 8-week-old lated overnight in Stemspan SFEM (STEMCELL Technologies) age- and sex-matched wild-type (wt) and Socs2 / littermates were supplemented with 100 ng/mL SCF, 100 ng/mL Flt3L, 50 ng/mL used for experiments. C57BL/6NCrl mice were purchased from TPO, 20 ng/mL IL3, and then lentiviral particles were added at a Charles River. CD45.1 mice were bred in our animal facility. multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 100. After 24 hours, cells were Experiments were performed according to local ethical guidelines. washed and cultured without the cytokine cocktail; for positive control, untransduced cells were left in the presence of cytokines; 5-FU myeloablation 48 hours later, cells were collected and lysed in TRIzol and used for Mice were injected intraperitoneally with 150 mg/kg body subsequent analysis. weight of 5-FU (TEVA). White blood cells (WBC) were counted on blood samples collected in heparinized tubes and counts were Statistical analysis expressed as WBC/mL of blood. Data in the histograms of Figs. 1–4 and 6 were represented as t Cell preparation and bone marrow assays mean SEM, and an unpaired two-tailed Student test was fi fi Bone marrow cells were flushed from tibias and femurs and routinely calculated otherwise speci ed in the gure legends. spleens were mechanically disrupted in PBS and passed through 70-mm cell strainers (BD). Erythrocytes were lysed and remaining Results cells were resuspended in PBS. For purification of bone marrow Hematopoietic stress responses are deregulated in SOCS2- lineage-negative cells (Lin ), we used mouse lineage cell deple- deficient mice tion kit (Miltenyi Biotec) following the manufacturer's instruc- Expression of Socs2 in HSC under basal conditions was high in tions. Details about serial bone marrow transplantation (BMT) LKS multipotent HSC and declined in lineage-committed com- in vitro in vitro experiments, colony-forming cell assay, cytokine mon myeloid progenitors (CMP), granulocyte/monocyte pro- stimulation, FACS, and phospho-STAT5 staining are included in genitors (GMP), and megakaryocyte/erythroid progenitors (MEP; the Supplementary Methods. Supplementary Fig. S1A and S1B), consistent with Socs2 charac- terizing the stem cell compartment (13–16, 22, 25). Still, SOCS2 Histopathology and IHC was dispensable for basal hematopoiesis being the bone marrow Histopathologic analyses on mouse tissues were performed on composition of wt and Socs2 / mice similar at the steady state sections stained with hematoxylin and eosin. IHC on human (Supplementary Fig. S1C and S1D). We hypothesized that bone marrow was performed as previously described (23) using a SOCS2, as inhibitor of JAK–STAT signaling, could influence HSC specific anti-human SOCS2 antibody (Abcam). Detailed descrip- functions in settings of hematopoietic stress. Therefore, we stud- tion of the analyzed human bone marrow samples is provided in ied the bone marrow response to myeloablation induced by 5-FU the Supplementary Methods. in wt and Socs2 / mice. After 5-FU, a wave of cytokines is Human public dataset analysis produced and induces bone marrow regeneration, which occurs fi around day 10 (3, 21). Socs2 was rapidly induced in bone marrow For computational gene expression pro les (GEP) analyses, public human leukemia datasets were used. Detailed information Lin cells (a population enriched for HSC) 1 day after 5-FU about samples and methods used for analysis are included in the administration and reached 30-fold upregulation after 6 days of Supplementary Data. treatment, returning to baseline within day 10 (Fig. 1A). Follow- ing 5-FU treatment, WBC counts similarly reached nadir within 4 Microarray days, but Socs2 / mice fully recovered between day 7 and 9, while þ For gene expression experiment, wt and Socs2 / Lin cKit Sca- wt mice recovered at day 11, a time point at which Socs2 / WBC þ 1 (LKS) from 6 mice/group were individually sorted in TRIzol as counts even exceeded baseline (Fig. 1B). At day 14, Socs2 / mice
2388 Cancer Res; 75(11) June 1, 2015 Cancer Research
Downloaded from cancerres.aacrjournals.org on September 28, 2021. © 2015 American Association for Cancer Research. Published OnlineFirst April 9, 2015; DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-14-3625
SOCS2 in Stress-Adapted and Leukemic Hematopoiesis
Figure 1. SOCS2 limits HSC response to 5-FU. A, qPCR of Socs2 in bone marrow Lin cells from mice at the indicated time points showed transient increase of Socs2 soon after 5-FU treatment (5 mice/each time point). B, WBC counts following 5-FU treatment showed accelerated and unrestrained rebound in Socs2 / compared þ þ with wt mice. C, splenomegaly occurred in Socs2 / mice after 5-FU. D, whole bone marrow and CD11b Gr1 cell counts from one femur 14 days after 5-FU revealed the overwhelming expansion of bone marrow cells in Socs2 / mice. E, histologic analysis of bone marrow sections of mice 7 and 14 days after 5-FU treatment showed increased expansion of megakaryocytic and granulocytic elements in Socs2 / mice. F and G, absolute cell numbers of the indicated bone marrow populations in mice treated with 5-FU indicated that expansion of committed progenitors was evident in Socs2 / mice upon treatment. Results are shown as ratio of counts from treated animals compared with the mean absolute number of three untreated mice of the same strain. H, relative frequency of LT-HSC þ þ þ þ (CD150 CD48 ), ST-HSC (CD150 CD48 ), and MPP (CD150 CD48 ) showed increased frequency of committed progenitors at the expense of LT-HSC. Results of 5- FU experiments are from three independent experiments (n ¼ 7 treated mice and n ¼ 3 untreated mice/group).