Distribution of dystrophin- and utrophin-associated protein complexes (DAPC/UAPC) in human hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells.

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) are defined by their cardinal properties, such as sustained proliferation, multilineage differentiation, and self-renewal, which give rise to a hierarchy of progenitor populations with more restricted potential lineage, ultimately leading to the production of all types of mature blood cells. HSC are anchored by cell adhesion molecules to their specific microenvironment, thus regulating their cell cycle, while cell migration is essentially required for seeding the HSC of the fetal bone marrow (BM) during development as well as in adult BM homeostasis. The dystrophin-associated protein complex (DAPC) is a large group of membrane-associated proteins linking the cytoskeleton to the extracellular matrix and exhibiting scaffolding, adhesion, and signaling roles in muscle and non-muscle cells including mature blood cells. Because adhesion and migration are mechanisms that influence the fate of the HSC, we explored the presence and the feasible role of DAPC. In this study, we characterized the pattern expression by immunoblot technique and, by confocal microscopy analysis, the cellular distribution of dystrophin and utrophin gene products, and the dystrophin-associated proteins (α-, β-dystroglycan, α-syntrophin, α-dystrobrevin) in relation to actin filaments in freshly isolated CD34+ cells from umbilical cord blood. Immunoprecipitation assays demonstrated the presence of Dp71d/Dp71Δ110m ∼DAPC and Up400/Up140∼DAPC. The subcellular distribution of the two DAPC in actin-based structures suggests their dynamic participation in adhesion and cell migration. In addition, the particular protein pattern expression found in hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells might be indicative of their feasible participation during differentiation.