Abstract
Multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) from the human olfactory mucosa (OM) are cells that have been proposed as a niche for neural progenitors. OM-MSCs share phenotypic and functional properties with bone marrow (BM) MSCs, which constitute fundamental components of the hematopoietic niche. In this work, we investigated whether human OM-MSCs may promote the survival, proliferation, and differentiation of human hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). For this purpose, human bone marrow cells (BMCs) were co-cultured with OM-MSCs in the absence of exogenous cytokines. At different intervals, nonadherent cells (NACs) were harvested from BMC/OM-MSC co-cultures, and examined for the expression of blood cell markers by flow cytometry. OM-MSCs supported the survival (cell viability >90%) and proliferation of BMCs, after 54 days of co-culture. At 20 days of co-culture, flow cytometric and microscopic analyses showed a high percentage (73%) of cells expressing the pan-leukocyte marker CD45, and the presence of cells of myeloid origin, including polymorphonuclear leukocytes, monocytes, basophils, eosinophils, erythroid cells, and megakaryocytes. Likewise, T (CD3), B (CD19), and NK (CD56/CD16) cells were detected in the NAC fraction. Colony-forming unit-granulocyte/macrophage (CFU-GM) progenitors and CD34(+) cells were found, at 43 days of co-culture. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) studies showed that OM-MSCs constitutively express early and late-acting hematopoietic cytokines (i.e., stem cell factor [SCF] and granulocyte- macrophage colony-stimulating factor [GM-CSF]). These results constitute the first evidence that OM-MSCs may provide an in vitro microenvironment for HSCs. The capacity of OM-MSCs to support the survival and differentiation of HSCs may be related with the capacity of OM-MSCs to produce hematopoietic cytokines.