C/EBPa controls acquisition and maintenance of adult hematopoietic stem cell quiescence

In blood, the transcription factor C/EBPa is essential for myeloid differentiation and has been implicated in regulating self-renewal of fetal liver hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). However, its function in adult HSCs is unknown. Here, using an inducible knockout model, we found that C/EBPa deficient adult HSCs underwent a pronounced expansion with enhanced proliferation, characteristics resembling fetal liver HSCs. Consistently, transcription profiling of C/EBPa deficient HSCs revealed a gene expression program similar to fetal liver HSCs. Moreover we observed that age-specific C/EBPa expression correlated with its inhibitory effect on the HSC cell cycle. Mechanistically, we identified N-Myc as a C/EBPa downstream target. C/EBPa upregulation during HSC transition from an active fetal state to a quiescent adult state was accompanied by down-regulation of N-Myc, and loss of C/EBPa resulted in de-repression of NMyc. Our data establish that C/EBPa acts as a molecular switch between fetal and adult states of HSC in part via transcriptional repression of the proto-oncogene N-Myc.

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Ye M, Zhang H, Amabile G, Yang H, Staber PB, Zhang P, Levantini E, Alberich-Jordà M, Zhang J, Kawasaki A, Tenen DG