Age-Related Changes in Population of Stromal Precursor Cells in Hematopoietic and Lymphoid Organs

It is shown that the content of precursor cells of stromal tissue (CFC-F) in the hemopoietic and lymphoid organs of SAMP (rapidly-ageing mice) and SAMR mice (mice with a normal ageing rate) decreases as the animals grow older. However the decrease in the content of CFC-F in SAMP mice begins substantially earlier - in the age group of 9-11 months, while in the SAMR mice - only in the age group of 16-19 months. It was found that the age reduction of the number to an equal degree relates to the whole population of CFC-F, in particular both the fraction of weakly-linked CFC-F, which is isolated by means of mechanical disaggregation of the tissue, and the fraction which may only be isolated using trypsin. It is shown that the concentration of inducible osteogenic precursor cells (IOPC) in the spleen of guinea pigs does not change with age, but their content in that organ in old animals (2-3 years old) drops by two times. It was found that in elderly animals the mass of the ectopic osseous tissue, formed by the implantation of an osteoinductor (autologous epithelium of the urinary bladder) in a system open for entrance of cells, decreases by two times. After curettage of the medullary cavity of guinea pig tibia (i.e. under conditions of an increased demand for osteogenic cells) the mass of induced ectopic osseous tissue decreases by 4 times, which indicates to the possible functional relationship between the pool of determined and inducible osteogenic precursor cells. On the whole, the obtained data show that during ageing there is a reduction in the number of stromal precursor cells (CFC-F and IOPC), which form a specific microenvironment for hemopoietic and lymphoid organs, which is important to understand the role of these cells in the development of age pathologies, in particular senile osteoporosis.