The glycolytic enzyme PFKFB3 determines bone marrow endothelial progenitor cell damage after chemotherapy and irradiation

Haematologica. 2022 Oct 1;107(10):2365-2380. doi: 10.3324/haematol.2021.279756.

Abstract

Bone marrow (BM) endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) damage of unknown mechanism delays the repair of endothelial cells (EC) and recovery of hematopoiesis after chemo-radiotherapy. We found increased levels of the glycolytic enzyme PFKFB3 in the damaged BM EPC of patients with poor graft function, a clinical model of EPC damage-associated poor hematopoiesis after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Moreover, in vitro the glycolysis inhibitor 3-(3-pyridinyl)- 1-(4-pyridinyl)-2-propen-1-one (3PO) alleviated the damaged BM EPC from patients with poor graft function. Consistently, PFKFB3 overexpression triggered BM EPC damage after 5-fluorouracil treatment and impaired hematopoiesis-supporting ability in vitro. Mechanistically, PFKFB3 facilitated pro-apoptotic transcription factor FOXO3A and expression of its downstream genes, including p21, p27, and FAS, after 5-fluorouracil treatment in vitro. Moreover, PFKFB3 induced activation of NF-κB and expression of its downstream adhesion molecule E-selectin, while it reduced hematopoietic factor SDF-1 expression, which could be rescued by FOXO3A silencing. High expression of PFKFB3 was found in damaged BM EC of murine models of chemo-radiotherapy-induced myelosuppression. Furthermore, a murine model of BM EC-specific PFKFB3 overexpression demonstrated that PFKFB3 aggravated BM EC damage, and impaired the recovery of hematopoiesis after chemotherapy in vivo, effects which could be mitigated by 3PO, indicating a critical role of PFKFB3 in regulating BM EC damage. Clinically, PFKFB3-induced FOXO3A expression and NF-κB activation were confirmed to contribute to the damaged BM EPC of patients with acute leukemia after chemotherapy. 3PO repaired the damaged BM EPC by reducing FOXO3A expression and phospho-NF-κB p65 in patients after chemotherapy. In summary, our results reveal a critical role of PFKFB3 in triggering BM EPC damage and indicate that endothelial-PFKFB3 may be a potential therapeutic target for myelosuppressive injury.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bone Marrow / metabolism
  • E-Selectin / metabolism
  • Endothelial Progenitor Cells* / metabolism
  • Fluorouracil / pharmacology
  • Glycolysis
  • Humans
  • Mice
  • NF-kappa B* / metabolism
  • Phosphofructokinase-2 / genetics
  • Phosphofructokinase-2 / metabolism

Substances

  • E-Selectin
  • Fluorouracil
  • NF-kappa B
  • PFKFB3 protein, human
  • Phosphofructokinase-2

Grants and funding

Funding: This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2021YFA1100904), National Natural Science Foundation of China (82070188, 81870139 and 81930004), and the Foundation for Innovative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81621001).