Systematic analysis of the ability of stromal cell lines derived from different murine adult tissues to support maintenance of hematopoietic stem cells in vitro.

Hematopoietic stem cells interact with a complex microenvironment both in vivo and in vitro. In association with this microenvironment, murine stem cells are maintained in vitro for several months. Fibroblast-like stromal cells appear to be important components of the microenvironment, since several laboratories have demonstrated that cloned stromal cell lines support hematopoiesis in vitro. The importance of the tissue of origin of such cell lines remains unknown, since systematic generation of stromal cell lines from adult tissues has never been accomplished. In addition, the capacity of stromal cell lines to support reconstituting stem cell has not been examined. We have previously described an efficient and rapid method for the immortalization of primary bone marrow stromal cell lines (Williams et al., Mol. Cell. Biol. 8:3864-3871, 1988) which can be used to systematically derive cell lines from multiple tissues of the adult mouse. Here we report the immortalization of primary murine lung, kidney, skin, and bone marrow stromal cells using a recombinant retrovirus vector (U19-5) containing the simian virus large T antigen (SV40 LT) and the neophosphotransferase gene. The interaction of these stromal cells with factor-dependent cells Patterson-Mix (FDCP-Mix), colony forming units-spleen (CFU-S), and reconstituting hematopoietic stem cells was studied in order to analyze the ability of such lines to support multipotent stem cells in vitro. These studies revealed that stromal cell lines from these diverse tissues were morphologically and phenotypically similar and that they quantitatively bound CFU-S and FDCP-Mix cells equally well. However, only those cell lines derived from bone marrow-supported maintenance of day 12 CFU-S in vitro. One lung-derived stromal cell line, ULU-3, supported the survival of day 8 CFU-S, but not the more primitive CFU-S12. A bone marrow-derived stromal cell line, U2, supported the survival of long-term reconstituting stem cells for up to 3 weeks in vitro as assayed by reconstitution 1 year post-transplant. These studies suggest that adherence of HSC to stromal cells is necessary but not sufficient for maintenance of these stem cell populations and that bone marrow provides specific signals relating to hematopoietic stem cell survival and proliferation.