HEMATOPOIESIS AND STEM CELLS

Heparanase is involved in tumor growth and metastasis. Because of its unique cleavage of heparan sulfate, which binds cytokines, chemokines and proteases, we hypothesized that heparanase is also in-volved in regulation of early stages of hematopoiesis. We report reduced num-bers of maturing leukocytes but elevated levels of undifferentiated Sca-1/c-Kit/ Lin cells in the bone marrow (BM) of mice overexpressing heparanase (hpa-Tg). This resulted from increased prolif-eration and retention of the primitive cells in the BM microenvironment, manifested in increased SDF-1 turnover. Further-more, heparanase overexpression in mice was accompanied by reduced protease activity of MMP-9, elastase, and cathep-sin K, which regulate stem and progenitor cell mobilization. Moreover, increased retention of the progenitor cells also re-sulted from up-regulated levels of stem cell factor (SCF) in the BM, in particular in the stem cell–rich endosteum and endo-thelial regions. Increased SCF-induced adhesion of primitive Sca-1/c-Kit/Lin cells to osteoblasts was also the result of elevation of the receptor c-Kit. Regulation of these phenomena is mediated by hyper-phosphorylation of c-Myc in hematopoi-etic progenitors of hpa-Tg mice or after exogenous heparanase addition to wild-type BM cells in vitro. Altogether, our data suggest that heparanase modification of the BM microenvironment regulates the retention and proliferation of hematopoi-etic progenitor cells. (Blood. 2008;111