Nucleostemin is indispensable for the maintenance and genetic stability of hematopoietic stem cells

Masayuki Yamashita, Eriko Nitta, Go Nagamatsu, Yoshiko Matsumoto Ikushima, Kentaro Hosokawa, Fumio Arai, Toshio Suda

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Nucleostemin is a nucleolar protein known to play a variety of roles in cell-cycle progression, apoptosis inhibition, and DNA damage protection in embryonic stem cells and tissue stem cells. However, the role of nucleostemin in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) is yet to be determined. Here, we identified an indispensable role of nucleostemin in mouse HSCs. Depletion of nucleostemin using short hairpin RNA strikingly impaired the self-renewal activity of HSCs both in vitro and in vivo. Consistently, nucleostemin depletion triggered apoptosis rather than cell-cycle arrest in HSCs. Furthermore, DNA damage accumulated during cultivation upon depletion of nucleostemin. The impaired self-renewal activity of HSCs induced by nucleostemin depletion was partially rescued by p53 deficiency but not by p16Ink4a or p19Arf deficiency. Taken together, our study demonstrates that nucleostemin protects HSCs from DNA damage accumulation and is required for the maintenance of HSCs.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)196-201
Number of pages6
JournalBiochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
Volume441
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2013 Nov 8
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Apoptosis
  • DNA damage
  • Hematopoietic stem cells
  • Nucleostemin

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biophysics
  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular Biology
  • Cell Biology

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