Colony stimulating factor-1 receptor drives glomerular parietal epithelial cell activation in focal segmental glomerulosclerosis.

Parietal epithelial cells (PECs) are kidney progenitor cells with similarities to a bone marrow stem cell niche. In focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) PECs become activated and contribute to extracellular matrix deposition. Colony stimulating factor-1 (CSF-1), a hematopoietic growth factor, acts via its specific receptor, CSF-1R, and has been implicated in several glomerular diseases, although its role on PEC activation is unknown. Here, we found that CSF-1R was upregulated in PECs and podocytes in biopsies from patients with FSGS. Through in vitro studies, PECs were found to constitutively express CSF-1R. Incubation with CSF-1 induced CSF-1R upregulation and significant transcriptional regulation of genes involved in pathways associated with PEC activation. Specifically, CSF-1/CSF-1R activated the ERK1/2 signaling pathway and upregulated CD44 in PECs, while both ERK and CSF-1R inhibitors reduced CD44 expression. Functional studies showed that CSF-1 induced PEC proliferation and migration, while reducing the differentiation of PECs into podocytes. These results were validated in the Adriamycin-induced FSGS experimental mouse model. Importantly, treatment with either the CSF-1R-specific inhibitor GW2580 or Ki20227 provided a robust therapeutic effect. Thus, we provide evidence of the role of the CSF-1/CSF-1R pathway in PEC activation in FSGS, paving the way for future clinical studies investigating the therapeutic effect of CSF-1R inhibitors on patients with FSGS.

Loss of epigenetic polarity is a hallmark of hematopoietic stem cell aging.

Changes of polarity in somatic stem cells upon aging or disease lead to a functional deterioration of stem cells and consequently loss of tissue homeostasis, likely due to changes in the mode (symmetry versus asymmetry) of stem cell divisions. Changes in polarity of epigenetic markers (or 'epi-polarity') in stem cells, which are linked to alterations in chromatin architecture, might explain how a decline in the frequency of epipolar stem cells can have a long-lasting impact on the function of especially aging stem cells. The drift in epipolarity might represent a novel therapeutic target to improve stem cell function upon aging or disease. Here we review basic biological principles of epigenetic polarity, with a special focus on epipolarity and aging of hematopoietic stem cells.

Aging alters the epigenetic asymmetry of HSC division.

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) balance self-renewal and differentiation to maintain homeostasis. With aging, the frequency of polar HSCs decreases. Cell polarity in HSCs is controlled by the activity of the small RhoGTPase cell division control protein 42 (Cdc42). Here we demonstrate-using a comprehensive set of paired daughter cell analyses that include single-cell 3D confocal imaging, single-cell transplants, single-cell RNA-seq, and single-cell transposase-accessible chromatin sequencing (ATAC-seq)-that the outcome of HSC divisions is strongly linked to the polarity status before mitosis, which is in turn determined by the level of the activity Cdc42 in stem cells. Aged apolar HSCs undergo preferentially self-renewing symmetric divisions, resulting in daughter stem cells with reduced regenerative capacity and lymphoid potential, while young polar HSCs undergo preferentially asymmetric divisions. Mathematical modeling in combination with experimental data implies a mechanistic role of the asymmetric sorting of Cdc42 in determining the potential of daughter cells via epigenetic mechanisms. Therefore, molecules that control HSC polarity might serve as modulators of the mode of stem cell division regulating the potential of daughter cells.

Rejuvenating aged stem cells: therapeutic strategies to extend health and lifespan.

Aging is associated with a global decline in stem cell function. To date, several strategies have been proposed to rejuvenate aged stem cells: most of these result in functional improvement of the tissue where the stem cells reside, but the impact on the lifespan of the whole organism has been less clearly established. Here, we review some of the most recent work dealing with interventions that improve the regenerative capacity of aged somatic stem cells in mammals and that might have important translational possibilities. Overall, we underscore that somatic stem cell rejuvenation represents a strategy to improve tissue homeostasis upon aging and present some recent approaches with the potential to affect health span and lifespan of the whole organism.

Transplanting rejuvenated blood stem cells extends lifespan of aged immunocompromised mice.

One goal of regenerative medicine is to rejuvenate tissues and extend lifespan by restoring the function of endogenous aged stem cells. However, evidence that somatic stem cells can be targeted in vivo to extend lifespan is still lacking. Here, we demonstrate that after a short systemic treatment with a specific inhibitor of the small RhoGTPase Cdc42 (CASIN), transplanting aged hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) from treated mice is sufficient to extend the healthspan and lifespan of aged immunocompromised mice without additional treatment. In detail, we show that systemic CASIN treatment improves strength and endurance of aged mice by increasing the myogenic regenerative potential of aged skeletal muscle stem cells. Further, we show that CASIN modifies niche localization and H4K16ac polarity of HSCs in vivo. Single-cell profiling reveals changes in HSC transcriptome, which underlie enhanced lymphoid and regenerative capacity in serial transplantation assays. Overall, we provide proof-of-concept evidence that a short systemic treatment to decrease Cdc42 activity improves the regenerative capacity of different endogenous aged stem cells in vivo, and that rejuvenated HSCs exert a broad systemic effect sufficient to extend murine health- and lifespan.

Aging of the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Niche: New Tools to Answer an Old Question.

The hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) niche is a specialized microenvironment, where a complex and dynamic network of interactions across multiple cell types regulates HSC function. During the last years, it became progressively clearer that changes in the HSC niche are responsible for specific alterations of HSC behavior. The aging of the bone marrow (BM) microenvironment has been shown to critically contribute to the decline in HSC function over time. Interestingly, while upon aging some niche structures within the BM are degenerated and negatively affect HSC functionality, other niche cells and specific signals are preserved and essential to retaining HSC function and regenerative capacity. These new findings on the role of the aging BM niche critically depend on the implementation of new technical tools, developed thanks to transdisciplinary approaches, which bring together different scientific fields. For example, the development of specific mouse models in addition to coculture systems, new 3D-imaging tools, ossicles, and ex-vivo BM mimicking systems is highlighting the importance of new technologies to unravel the complexity of the BM niche on aging. Of note, an exponential impact in the understanding of this biological system has been recently brought by single-cell sequencing techniques, spatial transcriptomics, and implementation of artificial intelligence and deep learning approaches to data analysis and integration. This review focuses on how the aging of the BM niche affects HSCs and on the new tools to investigate the specific alterations occurring in the BM upon aging. All these new advances in the understanding of the BM niche and its regulatory function on HSCs have the potential to lead to novel therapeutical approaches to preserve HSC function upon aging and disease.

Repolarization of HSC attenuates HSCs failure in Shwachman-Diamond syndrome.

Shwachman-Diamond syndrome (SDS) is a bone marrow failure (BMF) syndrome associated with an increased risk of myelodysplasia and leukemia. The molecular mechanisms of SDS are not fully understood. We report that primitive hematopoietic cells from SDS patients present with a reduced activity of the small RhoGTPase Cdc42 and concomitantly a reduced frequency of HSCs polar for polarity proteins. The level of apolarity of SDS HSCs correlated with the magnitude of HSC depletion in SDS patients. Importantly, exogenously provided Wnt5a or GDF11 that elevates the activity of Cdc42 restored polarity in SDS HSCs and increased the number of HSCs in SDS patient samples in surrogate ex vivo assays. Single cell level RNA-Seq analyses of SDS HSCs and daughter cells demonstrated that SDS HSC treated with GDF11 are transcriptionally more similar to control than to SDS HSCs. Treatment with GDF11 reverted pathways in SDS HSCs associated with rRNA processing and ribosome function, but also viral infection and immune function, p53-dependent DNA damage, spindle checkpoints, and metabolism, further implying a role of these pathways in HSC failure in SDS. Our data suggest that HSC failure in SDS is driven at least in part by low Cdc42 activity in SDS HSCs. Our data thus identify novel rationale approaches to attenuate HSCs failure in SDS.

Niche WNT5A regulates the actin cytoskeleton during regeneration of hematopoietic stem cells.

Here, we show that the Wnt5a-haploinsufficient niche regenerates dysfunctional HSCs, which do not successfully engraft in secondary recipients. RNA sequencing of the regenerated donor Lin- SCA-1+ KIT+ (LSK) cells shows dysregulated expression of ZEB1-associated genes involved in the small GTPase-dependent actin polymerization pathway. Misexpression of DOCK2, WAVE2, and activation of CDC42 results in apolar F-actin localization, leading to defects in adhesion, migration and homing of HSCs regenerated in a Wnt5a-haploinsufficient microenvironment. Moreover, these cells show increased differentiation in vitro, with rapid loss of HSC-enriched LSK cells. Our study further shows that the Wnt5a-haploinsufficient environment similarly affects BCR-ABLp185 leukemia-initiating cells, which fail to generate leukemia in 42% of the studied recipients, or to transfer leukemia to secondary hosts. Thus, we show that WNT5A in the bone marrow niche is required to regenerate HSCs and leukemic cells with functional ability to rearrange the actin cytoskeleton and engraft successfully.

The ageing haematopoietic stem cell compartment.

Stem cell ageing underlies the ageing of tissues, especially those with a high cellular turnover. There is growing evidence that the ageing of the immune system is initiated at the very top of the haematopoietic hierarchy and that the ageing of haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) directly contributes to changes in the immune system, referred to as immunosenescence. In this Review, we summarize the phenotypes of ageing HSCs and discuss how the cell-intrinsic and cell-extrinsic mechanisms of HSC ageing might promote immunosenescence. Stem cell ageing has long been considered to be irreversible. However, recent findings indicate that several molecular pathways could be targeted to rejuvenate HSCs and thus to reverse some aspects of immunosenescence.