Hematopoietic injury resulting from the damage of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) can be induced by either nuclear accident or radiotherapy. Radiomitigation of HSPCs is critical for the development of medical countermeasure agents. StemRegenin 1 (SR1) modulates the maintenance and function of HSPCs under non-stress conditions. However, the impact of SR1 in radiation-induced hematopoietic injury both in vivo and in vitro remains unknown. In this study, we found that treatment with SR1 after irradiation of C57BL/6 mice significantly mitigates TBI-induced death (80% of SR1-treated mice survival vs. 30% of saline-treated mice survival) with enhanced recovery of peripheral blood cell counts, with the density and cell proliferation of bone marrow components as observed by Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) and Ki-67 staining. Interestingly, in vitro analysis of human HSPCs showed that SR1 enhanced the population of human HSPCs (CD34+) under both non-irradiating and irradiating conditions, and reduced radiation-induced DNA damage and apoptosis. Furthermore, SR1 attenuated the radiation-induced expression of a member of the pro-apoptotic BCL-2 family and activity of caspase-3. Overall, these results suggested that SR1 modulates the radioresponse of HSPCs and might provide a potential radiomitigator of hematopoietic injury, which contributes to increase the survival of patients upon irradiation.
Keywords: StemRegenin 1; hematopoietic injury; hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells; radiation response; radiomitigation.