| First Author | Kusakabe M | Year | 2011 |
| Journal | Blood | Volume | 118 |
| Issue | 5 | Pages | 1374-85 |
| PubMed ID | 21628412 | Mgi Jnum | J:176944 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:5293214 | Doi | 10.1182/blood-2010-08-300400 |
| Citation | Kusakabe M, et al. (2011) c-Maf plays a crucial role for the definitive erythropoiesis that accompanies erythroblastic island formation in the fetal liver. Blood 118(5):1374-85 |
| abstractText | c-Maf is one of the large Maf (musculoaponeurotic fibrosarcoma) transcription factors that belong to the activated protein-1 super family of basic leucine zipper proteins. Despite its overexpression in hematologic malignancies, the physiologic roles c-Maf plays in normal hematopoiesis have been largely unexplored. On a C57BL/6J background, c-Maf(-/-) embryos succumbed from severe erythropenia between embryonic day (E) 15 and E18. Flow cytometric analysis of fetal liver cells showed that the mature erythroid compartments were significantly reduced in c-Maf(-/-) embryos compared with c-Maf(+/+) littermates. Interestingly, the CFU assay indicated there was no significant difference between c-Maf(+/+) and c-Maf(-/-) fetal liver cells in erythroid colony counts. This result indicated that impaired definitive erythropoiesis in c-Maf(-/-) embryos is because of a non-cell-autonomous effect, suggesting a defective erythropoietic microenvironment in the fetal liver. As expected, the number of erythroblasts surrounding the macrophages in erythroblastic islands was significantly reduced in c-Maf(-/-) embryos. Moreover, decreased expression of VCAM-1 was observed in c-Maf(-/-) fetal liver macrophages. In conclusion, these results strongly suggest that c-Maf is crucial for definitive erythropoiesis in fetal liver, playing an important role in macrophages that constitute erythroblastic islands. |
