The CD11a and Endothelial Protein C Receptor Marker Combination Simplifies and Improves the Purification of Mouse Hematopoietic Stem Cells

• DOI: 10.1002/sctm.17-0189
• Publication Date: 2018-03-15T14:23:58Z
• Authors: Alborz Karimzadeh; Vanessa M. Scarfone; Erika Varady; Connie Chao; Karin Grathwohl; John W. Fathman; David A. Fruman; Thomas Serwold; Matthew A. Inlay
• Keywords: Lipopolysaccharides; 0301 basic medicine; 570; Novel Cell Markers; Bone marrow transplantation; Medical Biotechnology; Clinical Sciences; Graft vs Host Disease; 610; Bone Marrow Cells; long- term repopulation; Inbred C57BL; Regenerative Medicine; Mice; 03 medical and health sciences; Translational Research Articles and Reviews; Stem Cell Research - Nonembryonic - Human; Cell surface markers; Animals; CD11a Antigen; long‐term repopulation; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation; Endothelial Protein C Receptor; Tissue-specific Progenitor and Stem cells; Stem Cell Research; Flow Cytometry; Hematopoietic Stem Cells; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Blood; Poly I-C; Hematopoietic Disorders; Hematopoietic Stem/Progenitor Cells; Stem Cell Research - Nonembryonic - Non-Human; Biochemistry and Cell Biology; Hematopoietic Regeneration; Hematopoietic stem cells; long-term repopulation; Biomarkers; Tissue‐Specific Progenitor and Stem Cells

Abstract Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are the self-renewing multipotent progenitors to all blood cell types. Identification and isolation of HSCs for study has depended on the expression of combinations of surface markers on HSCs that reliably distinguish them from other cell types. However, the increasing number of markers required to isolate HSCs has made it tedious, expensive, and difficult for newcomers, suggesting the need for a simpler panel of HSC markers. We previously showed that phenotypic HSCs could be separated based on expression of CD11a and that only the CD11a negative fraction contained true HSCs. Here, we show that CD11a and another HSC marker, endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR), can be used to effectively identify and purify HSCs. We introduce a new two-color HSC sorting method that can highly enrich for HSCs with efficiencies comparable to the gold standard combination of CD150 and CD48. Our results demonstrate that adding CD11a and EPCR to the HSC biologist's toolkit improves the purity of and simplifies isolation of HSCs.