HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

OPEN ACCESS ARTICLE

This Article Free via Open Access: OA OA Full Text Full Text (PDF) OA All Versions of this Article: 2007-0777v1 26/4/912    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints/Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Martelli, F. Articles by Migliaccio, A. R. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Martelli, F. Articles by Migliaccio, A. R.

EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS

Thrombopoietin Inhibits Murine Mast Cell Differentiation

Departments of ^aHematology, Oncology and Molecular Medicine,
^gCell Biology and Neurosciences, and
^cQuality and Safety of Animal Experimentation, Istituto Superiore Sanità, Rome, Italy;
^dDepartment of Hematology, University of Florence, Florence, Italy;
^bDepartment of Biomorphology, University of Chieti, Chieti, Italy;
^eKirin Brewery Pharmaceutical Research Laboratory, Gunma, Japan;
^fDepartment of Medicine, Mont Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA;
^hMyeloproliferative Disease–Research Consortium

Key Words. Thrombopoietin • Mpl • Mast cells • Apoptosis • Bcl2 • Mitf

Correspondence: Correspondence: Anna Rita Migliaccio, Ph.D., Department of Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA. Telephone: 212-241-46974; Fax: 0039-0649903160; e-mail: annarita.migliaccio{at}mssm.edu

Received on September 18, 2007; accepted for publication on January 31, 2008.

First published online in STEM CELLS EXPRESS  February 14, 2008.


We have recently shown that Mpl, the thrombopoietin receptor, is expressed on murine mast cells and on their precursors and that targeted deletion of the Mpl gene increases mast cell differentiation in mice. Here we report that treatment of mice with thrombopoietin or addition of this growth factor to bone marrow-derived mast cell cultures severely hampers the generation of mature cells from their precursors by inducing apoptosis. Analysis of the expression profiling of mast cells obtained in the presence of thrombopoietin suggests that thrombopoietin induces apoptosis of mast cells by reducing expression of the transcription factor Mitf and its target antiapoptotic gene Bcl2.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest is found at the end of this article.