Date of Award

2010

Degree Name

Biomedical Sciences

College

Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine

Type of Degree

Ph.D.

Document Type

Dissertation

First Advisor

Vincent E. Sollars

Second Advisor

Yulia Dementieva

Third Advisor

Kelley K. Kiningham

Abstract

Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and its precursors are the result of the dysregulation of hematopoiesis. Hematopoiesis proceeds in a stepwise manner, beginning with hematopoietic stem cells, continuing to develop into various stages of progenitor cells, and finally becoming fully functional blood cells. As this process goes awry, immature, functionless cells of the myeloid lineage proliferate out of control. Discerning how myeloid progenitor frequency is regulated allows for a better understanding of how the process may lose control. Hematopoiesis has been shown to depend on genetic and environmental factors. In this work, I have added to this knowledge base by providing novel information about genetic and environmental components for the regulation of blood cell development. By performing colony forming cell (CFC) assays to determine myeloid progenitor cell frequency in 27 strains of mice, and using bioinformatics capabilities in the form on SNP-based in silico mapping, I have found patterns among genes located in chromosomal loci of interest for regulating this phenotype. These patterns suggest that lipid metabolism, insulin sensitivity, and bone properties are key regulators of myelopoiesis. Additionally, I have found that polyunsaturated fatty acid (FA) content in the diet is a key environmental regulator. Mice fed diets rich in omega-3 FAs have significantly lower middle and late stage progenitor cell frequency and increased common myeloid progenitor frequency over those fed more similarly to the Western diet. Collectively these data suggest that the content of diet, how it is metabolized by the body, and how this affects the bone, regulates the frequency of myeloid progenitor cells. Further research into these processes may provide novel biomarkers for disease progression and improved therapeutic options for AML.

Subject(s)

Hematopoiesis.

Hematopoietic growth factors.

Acute myeloid leukemia.

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