Pleiotropic Roles of VEGF in the Microenvironment of the Developing Thymus.

Neonatal life marks the apogee of murine thymic growth. Over the first few days after birth, growth slows and the murine thymus switches from fetal to adult morphology and function; little is known about the cues driving this dramatic transition. In this study, we show for the first time (to our knowledge) the critical role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) on thymic morphogenesis beyond its well-known role in angiogenesis. During a brief window a few days after birth, VEGF inhibition induced rapid and profound remodeling of the endothelial, mesenchymal and epithelial thymic stromal compartments, mimicking changes seen during early adult maturation. Rapid transcriptional changes were seen in each compartment after VEGF inhibition, including genes involved in migration, chemotaxis, and cell adhesion as well as induction of a proinflammatory and proadipogenic signature in endothelium, pericytes, and mesenchyme. Thymocyte numbers fell subsequent to the stromal changes. Expression patterns and functional blockade of the receptors VEGFR2 and NRP1 demonstrated that VEGF mediates its pleiotropic effects through distinct receptors on each microenvironmental compartment of the developing mouse thymus.

TSLP or IL-7 provide an IL-7Rα signal that is critical for human B lymphopoiesis.

Thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) and IL-7 are cytokines that signal via the IL-7 receptor alpha (IL-7Rα) to exert both overlapping and unique functions during early stages of mouse B-cell development. In human B lymphopoiesis, the requirement for IL-7Rα signaling is controversial and the roles of IL-7 and TSLP are less clear. Here, we evaluated human B-cell production using novel in vitro and xenograft models of human B-cell development that provide selective IL-7 and human TSLP (hTSLP) stimulation. We show that in vitro human B-cell production is almost completely blocked in the absence of IL-7Rα stimulation, and that either TSLP or IL-7 can provide a signal critical for the production and proliferation of human CD19(+) PAX5(+) pro-B cells. Analysis of primary human bone marrow stromal cells shows that they express both IL-7 and TSLP, providing an in vivo source of these cytokines. We further show that the in vivo production of human pro-B cells under the influence of mouse IL-7 in a xenograft scenario is reduced by anti-IL-7 neutralizing antibodies, and that this loss can be restored by hTSLP at physiological levels. These data establish the importance of IL-7Rα mediated signals for normal human B-cell production.

Rapid thymic reconstitution following bone marrow transplantation in neonatal mice is VEGF-dependent.

Age-related differences in thymic function influence the rapidity of T cell reconstitution following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). In adults, thymic reconstitution is delayed until after marrow engraftment is established, and is significantly improved by approaches that increase marrow chimerism, such as pretransplantation irradiation. In contrast, we show that neonatal mice undergo more rapid and efficient thymic reconstitution than adults, even when bone marrow (BM) engraftment is minimal and in the absence of pretransplantation radiation. We have previously shown that the neonatal thymus produces high levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) that drives angiogenesis locally. In this report, we show that inhibition of VEGF prior to HSCT prevents rapid thymic reconstitution in neonates, but has no effect on thymic reconstitution in adults. These data suggest that the early radiation-independent thymic reconstitution unique to the neonatal host is mediated through VEGF, and reveals a novel pathway that might be targeted to improve immune reconstitution post-HSCT.