Bone marrow adipocytes support haematopoietic stem cell survival

In bone marrow (BM), haematopoietic elements are mingled with adipocytes (BM-A), which are the most abundant stromal component in the niche. BM-A progressively increase with ageing, eventually occupying up to 50% of BM cavities. In this work, the role played by BM-A was explored by studying primary human BM-A isolated from hip surgery patients at the molecular level, through microarray analysis, and at the functional level, by assessing their relationship with primary human haematopoietic stem cells (HSC) by the long-term culture initiating cell (LTC-IC) assay. Findings demonstrated that BM-A are capable of supporting HSC survival in the LTC-IC assay, since after 5 weeks of co-culture, HSC were still able to proliferate and differentiate. Furthermore, critical molecules such as C-X-C motif chemokine 12 (CXCL12), interleukin (IL)-8, colony-stimulating factor 3 (CSF3), and leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF), were expressed at similar levels in BM-A and in primary human BM mesenchymal stromal cells (BM-MSC), whereas IL-3 was higher in BM-A. Interestingly, BM-A displayed a different gene expression profile compared with subcutaneous adipose tissue adipocytes (AT-A) collected from abdominal surgery patients, especially in terms of regulation of lipid metabolism, stemness genes and white-to-brown differentiation pathways. Accordingly, analysis of the gene pathways involved in haematopoiesis regulation showed that BM-A are more closely related to BM-MSC than to AT-A. The present data suggest that BM-A play a supporting role in the haematopoietic niche and directly sustain HSC survival.