Mediatory role of stem cell derived cells in LPS-induced splenic CFUs accumulation

Injection of bacterial lipopolysaccharides (LPS) in LPS-responsive mice produces a transient increase of CFUs in spleen and blood but not in bone marrow. The cellular aspects of the mechanism underlying this response of the hemopoietic system to LPS were investigated. Bone marrow cells from LPS-high responder mice (BMC-H) of the C3Heb/FeJ and C57BL/ScSn strains were transferred to lethally irradiated histocompatible LPS-low responder C3H/HeJ and C57BL/10/ScCr mice and vice versa. Six to ten weeks after reconstitution recipient mice were tested with LPS. Six days after injection of LPS, CFUs numbers in blood and spleen of low-responders reconstituted with BMC-H showed a 10-17 fold increase compared with PBS-injected controls. Lethally irradiated LPS high-responders reconstituted with low-responder bone marrow cells (BMC-L) still produced a small but significant increase of splenic and blood CFUs numbers. These results suggest that relatively radioresistant stem cell-derived cells play an important role in the generation of a stimulus inducing the splenic CFUs accumulation following LPS injection. The decrease of femoral CFUs numbers was less prominent in mice reconstituted with BMC-L than in those reconstituted with BMC-H. Thus expression of the LPS locus is evident in both medullary and extra-medullary sites.