By
From the * Department of Molecular Immunology, Medical Institute of Bioregulation, Kyushu
University, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan; and the Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Research
Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Osaka 565-0871, Japan
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Abstract |
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bcl-x is a member of the bcl-2 gene family, which regulates apoptotic cell death in various cell lineages. There is circumstantial evidence suggesting that bcl-x might play a role in the apoptosis of
erythroid lineage cells, although there is no direct evidence. In this study, we used Bcl-X null
mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells, and showed that Bcl-X is indispensable for the production of
both embryonic primitive erythrocytes (EryP) and adult definitive erythrocytes (EryD) at the end
of their maturation. In vivo, bcl-x/
ES cells did not contribute to circulating EryD in adult chimeric mice that were produced by blastocyst microinjection of the bcl-x
/
ES cells. bcl-x
/
EryP
and EryD were produced by in vitro differentiation induction of ES cells on macrophage colony-stimulating factor-deficient stromal cell line OP9, and further analysis was carried out. The emergence of immature EryP and EryD from bcl-x
/
ES cells was similar to that from bcl-x+/+ ES cells.
However, prominent cell death of bcl-x
/
EryP and EryD occurred when the cells matured. The
data show that the antiapoptotic function of bcl-x acts at the very end of erythroid maturation.
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Introduction |
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Hematopoiesis is regulated by the orchestration of several processes, including cell proliferation, cell differentiation, and cell death. Apoptosis, also referred to as programmed cell death, regulates the survival of progenitor cells and the turnover of mature elements, which are important for maintaining the homeostasis of hematopoietic cells (1). Growth factors are thought to play important roles in the apoptosis of hematopoietic progenitors. They act as survival factors for hematopoietic precursors, and the hematopoietic progenitors succumb to apoptosis in their absence (2). On the other hand, the survival of hematopoietic cells is also controlled by the Bcl-2 protein family (5). Family members such as Bcl-2, Mcl-1, A1, and Bcl-XL are expressed in hematopoietic cells and are considered to function as repressors of apoptotic cell death (9).
In mouse embryogenesis, erythropoiesis originates in the yolk sac blood islands, beginning at approximately embryonic day 7.5, then migrates to the fetal liver, spleen, and eventually to the bone marrow (10). Embryonic primitive erythropoiesis in the yolk sac and definitive erythropoiesis in the fetal liver, spleen, and bone marrow produce primitive erythrocytes (EryP)1 and definitive erythrocytes (EryD), respectively. Although the glycoprotein hormone erythropoietin (EPO) was initially characterized as stimulating both the proliferation and differentiation of EryD progenitors, it has been shown that EPO maintains the viability of primarily EryD progenitor cells (11). The dependence of the survival of EryD on EPO is reported in various experimental systems, including Friend virus anemia strain-infected murine splenic erythroid progenitors, the erythroleukemia cell line, and murine fetal liver erythroid progenitors (2, 14- 16). These studies showed that survival of the late erythroid progenitors (CFU-E) of EryD was dependent on EPO and that the EPO-dependent period lasted from the CFU-E stage to the beginning of hemoglobin synthesis. Gene targeting experiments with EPO and EPO receptor revealed that EPO has important roles in primitive erythropoiesis (12, 13). We found that the survival of immature EryP was also dependent on EPO, as was that of EryD progenitors (our unpublished data). Thus, EPO prevents apoptosis of both EryP and EryD during their immature state.
The protein Bcl-2 prevents apoptosis triggered by various stimuli, including chemotherapeutic drugs, irradiation, viral infections, oxidant stress, and notably growth
factor deprivation (6). Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL act as cell death
repressors, whereas Bax and the alternatively spliced bcl-x
gene product, Bcl-XS, act as cell death promoters (6, 17,
18). A family of bcl-2 genes participates in the regulation of
cell survival in multiple cell lineages, including the hematopoietic lineage. Constitutive overexpression of Bcl-2 suppresses apoptosis in hematopoietic precursors by growth
factor withdrawal, and overexpression of Bcl-XL also suppresses apoptosis (19, 20). Both Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL have recently been reported to be involved in regulating erythroid
progenitors and survival (21). However, all of the evidence is circumstantial, and it is uncertain how bcl-x functions during erythroid differentiation under physiological
conditions. In this study, we analyzed the function of bcl-x
in erythropoiesis using mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells in
which both alleles of bcl-x were disrupted (26). The
production of immature EryP and EryD by bcl-x
/
ES cells
was normal. Unexpectedly, however, prominent apoptotic cell death of both EryP and EryD occurred at the very end
of erythroid maturation. These data clearly show that Bcl-X
is essential in the late erythroid maturation stage.
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Materials and Methods |
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Target Disruption of the bcl-x Gene.
E14 ES cells derived from strain 129/Ola were used throughout the experiment. ES bcl-x+/+, bcl-x+/Production of Chimeric Mice and Analysis of the Contribution of ES Cells.
ES bcl-x+/+, bcl-x+/ES Cells and Their Differentiation Induction.
ES bcl-x+/+, bcl-x+/Hematopoietic Colony Formation from Day 8 Hematopoietic Clusters.
To determine the differentiation capacity of bcl-x+/+ and bcl-xPurification and Counting Viability of the Induced Cells.
More than 75% of the differentiation-induced cells between days 6 and 8 were EryP, and the same proportion of cells between days 11 and 13 were EryD. In some experiments, the purification of EryP and EryD was carried out with metrizamide step gradient centrifugation. The cells were washed once with Tyrode's buffer containing 0.1% gelatin. 1-5 × 106 cells in 1 ml of the Tyrode's buffer were layered on a step gradient of 2.0 ml of 30% wt/vol metrizamide (Nacalai Tesque) and 2.0 ml of 15% wt/vol metrizamide. The cells were centrifuged at room temperature for 20 min at 400 g at the interface between the 15% metrizamide and the 30% metrizamide. The cells remaining at this interface were collected and washed three times with
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Electrophoretic Analysis of DNA Fragmentation.
After culture for 18 h in the presence or absence of 2 U/ml EPO, 106 cells were harvested by centrifugation at 200 g for 10 min. Low molecular weight DNA was extracted following the method of Sellins and Cohen (36). One quarter of the extracted DNA was electrophoresed in a 2.0% agarose gel and stained with ethidium bromide. ![]() |
Results |
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ES cells of bcl-x+/+, bcl-x+/, and
bcl-x
/
genotypes were injected into the blastocysts of
C57BL/6 mice to assess their ability to differentiate into
various organs in vivo. There were no differences in the
growth of parental bcl-x+/+, bcl-x+/
, and bcl-x
/
ES cells
(data not shown). Chimeric mice of >80% chimerism by coat color were analyzed for the contribution of the injected ES cells in various organs based on the activity of
GPI-1 isozymes. E14 ES cell-derived cells express the
GPI-1A isozyme, which is easily distinguishable from
the GPI-1B isozyme of the C57BL/6-derived cells (37). As
for heart, kidney, and muscle, there were no differences in
the contribution of parental bcl-x+/+, bcl-x+/
, and bcl-x
/
ES cells (Table I). On the other hand, the contribution of bcl-x
/
ES cells to lymphoid organs such as spleen and thymus
was significantly lower than that of bcl-x+/+ or bcl-x+/
ES
cells. This result is compatible with a previous report on the
shortened life span of bcl-x
/
immature lymphocytes (21).
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Two bcl-x/
ES cell lines (clones 18 and 3a) were analyzed for the function of the bcl-x gene in hematopoiesis.
Host blastocysts from the strain C57BL/6 are homozygous
for the Hbbs
-globin haplotype (corresponding to the
"single" band in Fig. 1, lane 1). In contrast, 129/Ola mice,
from which the ES cell line of this study was established,
are homozygous for the Hbbd haplotype (corresponding to
the "major" and "minor" bands in Fig. 1, lane 2). The proportion of major and minor hemoglobin shows the contribution of the injected ES cells to mature circulating EryD
in the chimeric mice. When bcl-x+/+ or bcl-x+/
ES cells
were used for chimera production, the contribution of the
ES cells to the circulating EryD was proportional to the
contribution of ES cells to the other organs. However,
when bcl-x
/
ES cells were used, no contribution of the
ES cells to circulating EryD was detected, despite their significant contribution to the other nonlymphohematopoietic organs (Fig. 1). These data clearly show that bcl-x has an
essential role for the in vivo production of EryD. In addition, the results from the chimeric mice demonstrate that
the contribution of bcl-x to EryD production is cell autonomous, since the hematopoietic microenvironment in the
chimeric animal could not complement the defective EryD
production from bcl-x
/
ES cells.
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The process of definitive erythroid lineage cell production can be divided into two stages. The earlier stage is
commitment and involves differentiation from multipotential progenitor cells to committed erythroid lineage cells.
The later stage is proliferation and maturation of the committed EryD progenitors. Two possibilities might account
for the failure of EryD production by bcl-x/
ES cells.
One is the commitment failure of the multipotential hematopoietic progenitor cells into erythroid lineage cells, and the other is the proliferation and maturation failure of the
committed erythroid cells. To analyze these possibilities, in
vitro differentiation induction from bcl-x
/
and bcl-x+/+
ES cells was carried out using OP9 stromal cells. The differentiation capacity of day 8 in vitro differentiation-induced
hematopoietic progenitor cells was examined. The day 8 hematopoietic clusters were of clonal origin, and most of
them could differentiate into multiple hematopoietic lineages, including the definitive erythroid lineage (27). There
were no differences in the number of day 8 hematopoietic
clusters induced from bcl-x+/+ or bcl-x
/
ES cells (data not
shown). As shown in Table II, there were also no significant differences in the types of colonies that developed from the day 8 hematopoietic clusters in methylcellulose
semisolid media containing IL-3 and EPO as growth factors. These data show that bcl-x is not necessary for the differentiation of the definitive erythroid lineage from multipotential hematopoietic progenitors. Since Bcl-X is essential
for the production of fully mature EryD, bcl-x seemed to
play important roles during the maturation of EryD after
commitment to the erythroid lineage.
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To further analyze the function of
bcl-x in the production of erythroid lineage cells, in vitro
differentiation induction into erythroid lineage cells from
bcl-x/
and bcl-x+/+ ES cells was carried out using OP9
stromal cells in the presence of EPO. The number of hemoglobin-containing dianisidine-positive cells was counted
between days 6 and 8 and between days 12 and 14. As previously reported, EryP and EryD appear in the former and
latter periods, respectively (29). On day 6, the number of
bcl-x
/
EryP was the same as bcl-x+/+ EryP. However, on
day 8, the difference between the number of bcl-x
/
EryP
and bcl-x+/+ EryP became pronounced. As shown in Table
III, on day 8 the number of bcl-x
/
EryP was only ~10%
that of bcl-x+/+ EryP. Moreover, the number of bcl-x
/
EryP on day 8 was ~10% that of the day 7 bcl-x
/
EryP,
suggesting that cell death occurred between these days. Similar results were obtained with EryD. There was no difference in the number of bcl-x
/
EryD and bcl-x+/+ EryD
on day 12. But, the difference became significant with maturation, and the number of EryD originating from bcl-x
/
ES cells was about one quarter that from bcl-x+/+ ES cells
on day 14.
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The percentage of viable cells was next examined, because apoptotic cell death of bcl-x/
erythroid cells was
suspected (Table IV). Here again, there were no significant
differences between the day 7 EryP and the day 12 EryD,
but the differences became significant thereafter. The percentages of viable cells mainly reflect viable erythroid cells, because the vast majority of the cells during differentiation induction belong to the erythroid lineage. More than 80%
of the cells harvested between days 7 and 8, and >90% of
the cells harvested between days 12 and 14 were EryP and
EryD, respectively, when the bcl-x+/+ ES cells were induced for differentiation. The percentage of viable bcl-x
/
EryP seems relatively high for the very low number of bcl-x
/
EryP (Table IV). This apparent discrepancy was probably due to the removal of dead bcl-x
/
EryP by adherent
macrophages. Electron microscopic features at about day 8 of the differentiation induction showed macrophages with
prominently phagocytosed dead EryP (data not shown).
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The morphological features and DNA fragmentation of the induced cells were analyzed to confirm
that the decreased number and viability of bcl-x/
cells
were due to apoptosis. Immature EryP and EryD were purified by metrizamide density gradient separation on days 6 and 12 of the differentiation induction, respectively. At
these times, no differences in number and viability were
detectable between the bcl-x+/+ and the bcl-x
/
erythroid
cells as shown above. Using this purification method, >98% of the purified cells were erythroid lineage cells and
their viability was 95-98%. These purified EryP and EryD
were cultured on OP9 cells for 2 d in the presence of EPO,
and the cells were harvested. Their morphological and molecular features were then examined. The bcl-x+/+ EryP
were viable and had mature morphology on day 8. In
contrast, the bcl-x
/
EryP had fragmented nuclei with
clumped chromatin, suggestive of apoptosis. On day 14, the vast majority of the cells were enucleated mature EryD
when the bcl-x+/+ ES cells were induced for differentiation,
whereas enucleated EryD were rarely observed when the
bcl-x
/
ES cells were induced. The hemoglobinized bcl-x
/
EryD were mainly nucleated erythroblasts. Thus, it
was difficult to find viable, fully mature EryP and EryD on
days 8 and 14 of the differentiation induction of bcl-x
/
ES cells, respectively, although immature EryP and EryD
were equally viable on days 6 and 12, respectively. Low
molecular weight DNA was extracted from the cells, and
agarose gel electrophoresis was carried out (Fig. 2). The
nucleosomal DNA ladder, which is characteristic of apoptotic cells, was observed to be significantly more abundant
in the bcl-x
/
erythroid lineage cells than in the bcl-x+/+
erythroid lineage cells. These data clearly demonstrate that the bcl-x
/
erythroid lineage cells underwent apoptosis
during the end stage of maturation.
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EPO is
required by immature erythroid lineage cells to prevent apoptosis. To analyze the roles of EPO and Bcl-X during the maturation of erythroid cells, an EPO deprivation experiment was performed. On days 6.5 and 11.5 of the differentiation induction, immature EryP and EryD were purified.
These erythroid cells were not considered to be late-stage
erythroid progenitors, but rather immature erythroid cells,
because hemoglobinization had already begun but the cells
still showed an immature morphology. After purification
on days 6.5 and 11.5, the bcl-x+/+ and bcl-x/
erythroid
lineage cells were cultured without OP9 stromal cells in
the presence or absence of EPO. 1 and 1.5 d after the culture, the viability of the cells was examined (Fig. 3). Deprivation of EPO at this stage affected the viability of EryP
much more severely than EryD; however, the results of the
examination of EryP and EryD were essentially the same.
In the presence of EPO, there were significant differences
in the viability of bcl-x+/+ and bcl-x
/
erythroid cells (P < 0.0005 by t test). Even in the absence of EPO, the differences in the viability were significant (P < 0.005 by t test).
Furthermore, EPO deprivation decreased the viability of
both EryP and EryD even in the context of bcl-x null (P < 0.0001 by t test). Taken together, EPO deprivation and the
bcl-x null mutation affected cell death additively.
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Discussion |
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bcl-x, a member of the bcl-2 family of apoptosis regulatory genes, can be alternatively spliced to produce two protein isoforms, Bcl-XL and Bcl-XS (6, 17, 18). Bcl-XL exhibits remarkable structural homology with Bcl-2 and
inhibits apoptotic cell death. Evidence from studies of cell
lines and transgenic mice suggests that the bcl-2 gene family
plays a role in the survival of erythroid lineage (22, 23, 25).
The expression pattern of bcl-x obtained from primary human erythroid cells and mouse erythroblasts infected with
the anemia-inducing strain of Friend virus (FVA) suggests that bcl-x among bcl-2 gene family members is the principal
antiapoptotic regulator during late erythroid differentiation
(24). Bcl-X is strongly increased during the terminal differentiation stages of human and mouse erythroblasts in the
presence of EPO, reaching maximum transcript and protein levels at the time of maximum hemoglobin synthesis.
This increase in Bcl-X expression leads to an apparent level
~50 times greater than the level in proerythroblasts before EPO stimulation. In contrast, neither mouse nor human
erythroblasts express Bcl-2 transcript or protein. The levels
of other Bcl-2 family members, Bax and Bad proteins, remain relatively constant throughout differentiation, but diminish at the end of terminal differentiation near the time
of enucleation. These data on the expression pattern of the
bcl-2 gene family products imply that bcl-x is the critical
member of the bcl-2 family during erythroid differentiation.
Furthermore, the increased apoptotic cell death of hematopoietic cells in bcl-x/
fetal liver and the absence of defects
in the fetal liver of bcl-2
/
mice support the hypothesis
that Bcl-X, not Bcl-2, is the important factor in erythropoiesis (21, 38). However, there is no direct evidence
for the role of bcl-x in erythropoiesis, despite this circumstantial evidence.
To examine the critical physiological roles of the bcl-x
gene on hematopoiesis, chimeric mice production and
OP9 in vitro differentiation induction were carried out using bcl-x/
ES cells. There was no contribution by bcl-x
/
ES cells to the circulating EryD in the chimeric mice, demonstrating that bcl-x is indispensable for the full maturation
of EryD. Defects in erythropoiesis were analyzed in detail
using in vitro differentiation induction from ES cells by
coculturing the cells on the macrophage colony-stimulating factor-deficient OP9 stromal cell line (the OP9 system
[28]). Two waves of erythroid cell production were observed when ES cells were cocultured with OP9 stromal
cells. The development of hematopoietic cells in this OP9
system is very similar to that observed in developing mouse
embryos (27, 29, 41). The first wave of erythropoiesis, appearing between days 6 and 8 of the induction, and the
second wave, appearing after day 10 of the induction, correspond to primitive and definitive erythropoiesis, respectively, by morphological and biochemical criteria (29). Our
data clearly show that apoptotic cell death of bcl-x
/
erythroid lineage cells was observed only at the end of maturation in both primitive and definitive erythropoiesis.
bcl-x-deficient mice die at about embryonic day 13 (21).
Extensive apoptotic cell death is evident in hematopoietic
cells in fetal liver. There is a threefold increase in TUNEL
(for terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP
nick end labeling)-labeled apoptotic nuclei in histologically
identifiable hematopoietic cells in embryonic day 12.5 bcl-x/
liver compared with wild-type tissue. These data suggest that erythropoiesis in the fetal liver of bcl-x
/
mice is
impaired because the vast majority of fetal liver hematopoietic cells at this gestational stage are erythroid lineage cells.
The data on defective EryD production by the OP9 system
are consistent with these in vivo data. During in vitro
differentiation, although significant numbers of bcl-x
/
erythroblasts survived, almost no enucleated erythrocytes
could be detected. This result shows that the pivotal function of bcl-x is expressed at the late stage of erythroid maturation. The critical role of bcl-x seems to be brought about
by the remarkable increase of Bcl-X protein at the end of
erythroid maturation. In vitro differentiation induction
shows that apoptotic cell death of EryP also occurred at the
late stage of maturation, which is consistent with primitive
erythropoiesis in the bcl-x
/
mice. The effect of bcl-x on
primitive erythropoiesis was not examined extensively because of the difficulty counting EryP numbers correctly in
tiny mouse embryos. However, the following two lines of
evidence strongly suggest that EryP production in bcl-x
/
mice was impaired to some extent. First, bcl-x
/
mice
were paler than the control mice at day 12.5 of gestation (21; our unpublished data). At this gestational stage, >95%
of the erythrocytes are still EryP, although the relative percentage of EryP begins to decrease (42). Second, bcl-x
/
mice died at day 13 of gestation, which is earlier than the
mutant mice lacking only definitive hematopoiesis by gene
targeting of c-myb (43). The c-myb targeted mice were severely anemic by day 15; however, the mutant mice appeared normal at day 13 of gestation. On the other hand,
EPO signal-deficient mice, which have a partial defect in
primitive erythropoiesis and a complete defect in definitive
erythropoiesis, die at day 13 of gestation, as early as bcl-x
/
mice (12, 13). Meanwhile, it is reasonable to consider that a
similar time course of cell death of bcl-x
/
EryP and bcl-x
/
EryD would reflect a similar underlying molecular
mechanism of cell death caused by the null mutation of
bcl-x. The cause of cell death might be explained by the relationship between massive heme synthesis at the end of
maturation of erythroid lineage cells and the antioxidant
function of Bcl-XL (24).
Of the various methods of in vitro hematopoietic differentiation from ES cells, the OP9 system has several remarkable advantages, among which are their potential to differentiate into fully mature blood cells and the feasibility of
analyzing the cells quantitatively (26, 27). To analyze the
defective erythropoiesis from bcl-x/
ES cells, quantitative
analysis of the fully mature erythroid cells was necessary.
However, such analysis is almost impossible by the conventional in vitro differentiation induction method with embryoid body formation. The other substantial advantage of
the OP9 system is that hematopoietic microenvironment
and hematopoietic cells can be analyzed separately by this
method. It is well known that hematopoiesis is maintained
by the hematopoietic microenvironment, such as stromal
cells. By the conventional embryoid body formation method, both hematopoietic microenvironment and hematopoietic cells are induced from ES cells and are unseparable.
But with the OP9 system, hematopoietic cells are induced
from ES cells while the hematopoietic microenvironment
is provided by OP9 stromal cells. It is concluded from the
defective EryD production in the chimeric mice that this
defect is cell autonomous. In addition, the defective erythropoiesis of the bcl-x
/
genotype with the OP9 system strongly
supports this conclusion.
The production of definitive erythroid lineage cells is controlled by EPO (11). EPO induces the proliferation and prevents the apoptotic cell death of EryD. The antiapoptotic
effect of EPO on EryD was observed from late erythroid
progenitors (CFU-E) until the onset of hemoglobinization
(2, 14). In other words, EPO-deprived apoptotic cell
death is hardly at all observed at the end of maturation
when maximal hemoglobin synthesis occurs. On the other
hand, massive apoptotic cell death of bcl-x/
EryD was
observed after day 13 of differentiation induction. It is reasonable to consider that the accumulation of Bcl-X (probably Bcl-XL) resulting from EPO stimulation prevents the
apoptotic cell death of terminally differentiated erythroid
cells. However, the accumulation of Bcl-X cannot be the
only way to explain the antiapoptotic effect of EPO, because EPO prevents apoptotic cell death to some extent
even in the absence of Bcl-X (Fig. 3). Taken together, it is
likely that EPO has dual roles to prevent apoptotic cell
death at different differentiation stages.
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Footnotes |
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Address correspondence to Toru Nakano, Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Yamada-Oka 3-1, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan. Phone: 81-6-6879-8361; Fax: 81-6-6879-8362; E-mail: tnakano{at}biken.osaka-u.ac.jp
Received for publication 28 September 1998 and in revised form 19 March 1999.
N. Motoyama's present address is Department of Geriatric Research, National Institute for Longevity Sciences, 36-3 Gengo, Morioka, Obu, Aichi 474-8522, Japan.The authors thank Dr. Yoshihide Tsujimoto for discussions, and Kirin Brewery Co. Ltd. for their kind gift of human recombinant EPO.
This work was supported in part by grants from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture, the Research for the Future Program of Japanese Society for Promotion of Sciences (JSPS-RFTF98L01101), the Naito Memorial Foundation, and the Novartis Foundation (Japan) for the Promotion of Science.
Abbreviations used in this paper CFU-E, colony forming unit-erythroid; EPO, erythropoietin; EryP, embryonic primitive erythrocyte(s); EryD, adult definitive erythrocyte(s); ES, embryonic stem; GPI, glucose phosphoisomerase.
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