Combined effects of Notch signaling and cytokines induce a multiple log increase in precursors with lymphoid and myeloid reconstituting ability

B Varnum-Finney, C Brashem-Stein… - Blood, The Journal of …, 2003 - ashpublications.org
B Varnum-Finney, C Brashem-Stein, ID Bernstein
Blood, The Journal of the American Society of Hematology, 2003ashpublications.org
We investigated whether combined signaling induced by engineered Notch ligands and
hematopoietic growth factors influences hematopoietic stem-cell differentiation. We show
that incubation of murine marrow precursors with Delta1ext-IgG, a Notch ligand consisting of
the Delta1 extracellular domain fused to the Fc portion of human immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1),
and growth factors stem cell factor (SCF), interleukin 6 (IL-6), IL-11, and Flt3-l inhibited
myeloid differentiation and promoted a several-log increase in the number of precursors …
We investigated whether combined signaling induced by engineered Notch ligands and hematopoietic growth factors influences hematopoietic stem-cell differentiation. We show that incubation of murine marrow precursors with Delta1ext-IgG, a Notch ligand consisting of the Delta1 extracellular domain fused to the Fc portion of human immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1), and growth factors stem cell factor (SCF), interleukin 6 (IL-6), IL-11, and Flt3-l inhibited myeloid differentiation and promoted a several-log increase in the number of precursors capable of short-term lymphoid and myeloid repopulation. Addition of IL7 promoted early T-cell development, whereas addition of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) led to terminal myeloid differentiation. These results support a role for combinatorial effects by Notch and cytokine-induced signaling pathways in regulating hematopoietic cell fate and suggest the usefulness of Notch ligand in increasing hematopoietic precursor numbers for clinical stem-cell transplantation.
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