1] Division of Interdisciplinary Medical Science, United Centers for Advanced Research and Translational Medicine, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8575, Japan [2].
Nat Commun. 2013;4:2902. doi: 10.1038/ncomms3902.
Erythropoietin (Epo) supports both primitive erythropoiesis in the yolk sac and definitive erythropoiesis in the fetal liver and bone marrow. Although definitive erythropoiesis requires kidney- and liver-secreted Epo, it is unclear which cells produce Epo for primitive erythropoiesis. Here we find neural Epo-producing (NEP) cells in mid-gestational stage embryos using mouse lines that express green fluorescent protein (GFP) under the Epo gene regulation. In these mice, GFP is expressed exclusively in a subpopulation of neural and neural crest cells at embryonic day 9.0 when Epo-deficient embryos exhibit abnormalities in primitive erythropoiesis. The GFP-positive NEP cells express Epo mRNA and the ex vivo culture of embryonic day 8.5 neural tubes results in the secretion of Epo, which is able to induce the proliferation and differentiation of yolk sac-derived erythroid cells. These results thus suggest that NEP cells secrete Epo and might support the development of primitive erythropoiesis.
促红细胞生成素（Epo）既支持卵黄囊中的原始红细胞生成，也支持胎儿肝脏和骨髓中的成红细胞生成。虽然成红细胞生成需要肾脏和肝脏分泌的 Epo，但尚不清楚哪些细胞产生 Epo 用于原始红细胞生成。在这里，我们使用在 Epo 基因调控下表达绿色荧光蛋白（GFP）的小鼠系，在中期胚胎中发现了神经 Epo 产生（NEP）细胞。在这些小鼠中，GFP 在 Epo 缺陷胚胎表现出原始红细胞生成异常的胚胎 9.0 天时，仅在神经和神经嵴细胞的一个亚群中表达。GFP 阳性的 NEP 细胞表达 Epo mRNA，并且体外培养胚胎 8.5 天的神经管可导致 Epo 的分泌，其能够诱导卵黄囊来源的红细胞的增殖和分化。因此，这些结果表明 NEP 细胞分泌 Epo 并可能支持原始红细胞生成的发育。
