Biology subjects

Metzner, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Metzner, M..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2023

Selective advantage of mutant stem cells in clonal hematopoiesis occurs by attenuating the deleterious effects of inflammation and aging

Clonal hematopoiesis (CH) arises when hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) acquire mutations in genes, including DNMT3A and TET2, conferring a competitive advantage through a mechanism that remains unclear. To gain insight into how CH mutations enable gradual clonal expansion, we used single-cell multi-omics with high-fidelity genotyping on CH bone marrow samples. Most of the selective advantage of mutant cells occurs within HSCs. DNMT3A and TET2-mutant clones expand further in early progenitors, while TET2 mutations accelerate myeloid maturation in a dose-dependent manner. Unexpectedly, both mutant and non-mutant HSCs from CH samples are enriched for inflammatory and aging transcriptomic signatures, compared to HSC from non-CH samples, revealing a non-cell autonomous mechanism. However, DNMT3A and TET2-mutant HSCs have an attenuated inflammatory response relative to wild-type HSCs within the same sample. Our data support a model whereby CH clones are gradually selected because they are more resistant to the deleterious impact of inflammation and aging.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2023

Dysregulation of chromatin via H3K27 methylation underpins differentiation arrest in Isocitrate dehydrogenase-mutant Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.

Dysregulation of cellular differentiation is a hallmark of cancer. Isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) is commonly mutated multiple cancers including glioma, cholangiocarcinoma, lymphoma and Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML). Mutant IDH generates d-2-hydroxyglutarate that inhibits enzymes including Jumonji histone demethylases and TET2. Using primary human IDH2-mutant AML cells as a model, single cell RNA-seq and ATAC-seq, we demonstrated the continuum of cell states during restoration of neutrophilic differentiation to leukaemic progenitors by Enasidenib, a mutant IDH2 inhibitor. In cells which ultimately differentiate, there is co-expression of competing GATA2/RUNX3/SOX4-driven stem-progenitor and pro-differentiation EGR1/JUN/FOS programmes, followed by expression of cell cycle and terminal neutrophil programmes involving CEBP family and SPI1/PU.1. Genes upregulated during differentiation display loss of H3K27me3 in bivalent chromatin but not of H3K4me3, while downregulated genes are enriched for PRC2/EZH2 targets. In contrast to previous reports of a TET2-dependent mechanism for IDH-mutations, we observed only a modest link between promoter DNA CpG methylation and gene expression. For the first time in primary AML, we describe the lifting of differentiation block by de-repression of pro-differentiation genes through modulation of H3K27 demethylation in bivalent chromatin, and thus highlight a novel and important mechanism in how IDH mutations disrupt cell fates in cancer.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2022

Identification and Age-dependent Increase of Platelet Biased Human Hematopoietic Stem Cells

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) reconstitute multi-lineage human hematopoiesis after clinical bone marrow transplantation and are the cells-of-origin of hematological malignancies. Though HSC provide multi-lineage engraftment, individual murine HSCs are lineage-biased and contribute unequally to blood cell lineages. Now, by combining xenografting of molecularly barcoded adult human bone marrow (BM) HSCs and high-throughput single cell RNA sequencing we demonstrate that human individual BM HSCs are also functionally and transcriptionally lineage biased. Specifically, we identify platelet-biased and multi-lineage human HSCs. Quantitative comparison of transcriptomes from single HSCs from young, and aged, BM show that both the proportion of platelet-biased HSCs, and their level of transcriptional platelet priming, increases with age. Therefore, platelet-biased HSCs, as well as their increased prevalence and elevated transcriptional platelet priming during ageing, are conserved between human and murine hematopoiesis. One-Sentence SummaryIn vivo barcoding and single cell RNA sequencing identifies platelet-biased human bone marrow HSCs.

cell biology↗

bioRxiv2021

A simple and direct method to define clonal selection in somatic mosaicism

As DNA variants accumulate in somatic stem cells, become selected or evolve neutrally, they may ultimately alter tissue function. When, and how, selection occurs in homeostatic tissues is incompletely understood. Here, we introduce SCIFER, a scalable method that identifies selection in an individual tissue, without requiring knowledge of the underlying driver event. Moreover, SCIFER infers the self-renewal and mutation dynamics of the tissues stem cells, and, if selection is present, the size and growth rate of the largest selected clone. We benchmark SCIFER with published data and then probe bone marrow of 22 non-leukemic individuals for clonal hematopoiesis (CH), identifying CH with known and unknown driver events. Unexpectedly, we find accelerated division of all stem cells in CH, compared to age-matched non-CH individuals, suggesting that the bone marrow environment alters stem cell dynamics in individuals with CH. SCIFER is broadly applicable to renewing somatic tissues to detect and quantify selection.

cancer biology↗