Impaired haematopoietic stem cell differentiation and enhanced skewing towards myeloid progenitors in aged caspase-2-deficient mice

Cell Death Dis. 2016 Dec 1;7(12):e2509. doi: 10.1038/cddis.2016.406.

Abstract

The apoptotic cysteine protease caspase-2 has been shown to suppress tumourigenesis in mice and its reduced expression correlates with poor prognosis in some human malignancies. Caspase-2-deficient mice develop normally but show ageing-related traits and, when challenged by oncogenic stimuli or certain stress, show enhanced tumour development, often accompanied by extensive aneuploidy. As stem cells are susceptible to acquiring age-related functional defects because of their self-renewal and proliferative capacity, we examined whether loss of caspase-2 promotes such defects with age. Using young and aged Casp2-/- mice, we demonstrate that deficiency of caspase-2 results in enhanced aneuploidy and DNA damage in bone marrow (BM) cells with ageing. Furthermore, we demonstrate for the first time that caspase-2 loss results in significant increase in immunophenotypically defined short-term haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and multipotent progenitors fractions in BM with a skewed differentiation towards myeloid progenitors with ageing. Caspase-2 deficiency leads to enhanced granulocyte macrophage and erythroid progenitors in aged mice. Colony-forming assays and long-term culture-initiating assay further recapitulated these results. Our results provide the first evidence of caspase-2 in regulating HSC and progenitor differentiation, as well as aneuploidy, in vivo.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aging / metabolism*
  • Aneuploidy
  • Animals
  • Caspase 2 / deficiency*
  • Caspase 2 / metabolism
  • Cell Differentiation*
  • Cells, Cultured
  • DNA Damage
  • Hematopoietic Stem Cells / pathology*
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Mice, Knockout
  • Myeloid Progenitor Cells / pathology*

Substances

  • Caspase 2