Morphological characteristics of young and old murine hematopoietic stem cell niches, as modeled in vitro

Justin, Mojca (author), Rogač Randl, Ema (author), Kononenko, Veno (author), Hočevar, Matej (author), Drobne, Damjana (author), Rožman, Primož (author)

The hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) niche undergoes detrimental changes with age. The molecular differences between young and old niches are well studied and understood; however, young and old niches have not yet been extensively characterized in terms of morphology. In the present work, a 2D stromal model of young and old HSC niches isolated from bone marrow was investigated using light and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to characterize cell density after one, two, or three weeks of culturing, cell shape, and cell surface morphological features. Our work is aimed at identifying morphological differences between young and old niche cells that could be used to discriminate between their respective murine HSC niches. The results show several age-specific morphological characteristics. The old niches differ from the young ones in terms of lower cell proliferating capacity, increased cell size with a flattened appearance, increased number of adipocytes, and the presence of tunneling nanotubes. In addition, proliferating cell clusters are present in the young niches but not in the old niches. Together, these characteristics could be used as a relatively simple and reliable tool to discriminate between young and old murine HSC niches and as a complementary approach to imaging with specific cellular markers.

• Language: English
• Keywords: bone marrow, hematopoietic stem cell niches, aging, adipocytes, scanning electron microscopy
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: BF - Biotechnical Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2023
• Number of pages: 10 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 2023, art. 5541050
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-152339
• UDC: 576
• ISSN on article: 1932-8745
• DOI: 10.1155/2023/5541050
• COBISS.SI-ID: 149390083
• Publication date in RUL: 21.11.2023

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Scanning
• Publisher: Hindawi
• ISSN: 1932-8745
• COBISS.SI-ID: 517825049

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: kostni mozeg, niše hematopoetskih matičnih celic, staranje, adipociti, vrstična elektronska mikroskopija