Lifestyle & Biology: How Obesity Impacts Bone Marrow Cells
The life-long burden of a western-style diet on the heart and circulatory system has long been appreciated. However, no one had truly considered whether blood stem cells might be similarly vulnerable to a high-fat diet and/or obesity.
Now, in a study, researchers at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, have explored the pernicious effect of obesity on the long-term health of blood-making stem cells (hematopoietic stem cells).
“There is now an understanding that the blood stem cell compartment is made up of numerous cell subsets. Keeping this compartment healthy is essential to human health. This includes maintaining the diverse pool of blood-making stem cells (hematopoietic stem cells) needed to produce blood cells the body needs to function properly,” said Damien Reynaud, PhD, the study’s principal investigator.
Reynaud and collaborators, including first author and post-doctoral research fellow Jung-Mi Lee, show that obesity related stresses alter the cellular architecture of the hematopoietic stem cell compartment and reduce its long-term functional fitness.
Tests pertaining to the study were largely carried out on animal models. They demonstrate how effects of obesity are progressive and that some of the harmful manifestations persist even after researchers normalize the animals’ weight through dietary
controls. The team also noted that these alterations of the body’s blood-making system appear to be linked to over-expression of a transcription factor called Gfi1 — a regulatory gene that tells other genes what to do.Investigators say their study also provides groundwork to investigate how lifestyle choices, such as diet, can durably impact blood formation and may contribute to the development of blood cancer.
“Little is known about how obesity in marrow donors could affect the quality of the hematopoietic stem cell compartment,” Reynaud explains. “We want to better understand the molecular alterations in obesity to predict potential risks associated with the therapeutic use of stem cells isolated from obese donors.“
