The Smad5 gene is involved in the intracellular signaling pathways that mediate the inhibitory effects of transforming growth factor-beta on human hematopoiesis.

Signals from transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta), a bifunctional regulator of the proliferation of hematopoietic progenitor cells, have been recently shown to be transduced by five novel human genes related to a Drosophila gene termed MAD (mothers against the decapentaplegic gene). We showed by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction that the RNA from one homologue gene, Smad5, was present in the immortalized myeloid leukemia cell lines, KG1 and HL60, in bone marrow mononuclear and polymorphonuclear cells, as well as in purified CD34+ bone marrow cells. Therefore, we studied the role of this gene in the regulation of human hematopoiesis by TGF-beta. TGF-beta1 and TGF-beta2 significantly inhibited myeloid, erythroid, megakaryocyte, and multilineage colony formation as assayed in semisolid culture systems. The levels of Smad5 mRNA in CD34+ cells were decreased by antisense but not sense oligonucleotides to Smad5. Preincubation of CD34+ marrow cells with two sense oligonucleotides to Smad5 did not reverse the inhibitory effects of TGF-beta on hematopoietic colony formation. However, preincubation with two antisense oligonucleotides to Smad5 reversed the inhibitory effects of TGF-beta. These data show that the Smad5 gene is involved in the signaling pathway by which TGF-beta inhibits primitive human hematopoietic progenitor cell proliferation and that Smad5 antisense oligonucleotides can interrupt this signal.