title: Adrenomedullin is expressed in cord blood hematopoietic cells and stimulates their clonal growth.
abstract: Adrenomedullin (AM) is a hypotensive peptide, which originates from the proteolytic cleavage of pro(p)AM and acts via AM22-52-sensitive receptors. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction allowed the detection of the specific mRNAs of pAM in the mononuclear hematopoietic cells of the cord blood and immunocytochemistry demonstrated their abundant AM-immunoreactivity. AM (10(-8) M) markedly enhanced clonal growth of cord blood hematopoietic cells cultured on semisolid media added with stem cell-growth promoting cytokines, and this effect was abolished by AM22-52 (10(-6) M). Collectively, these findings indicate that AM is expressed in and stimulates the proliferation of cord blood hematopoietic stem cells. Cord blood has been proposed as a source of stem cells alternative to bone marrow for allogeneic transplantation, and our study suggests that AM may be used, in addition to the classic cytokines, to expand in vitro cord blood stem cells in advance of their clinical use.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Section of Anatomy, University of Padua, I-35121 Padua, Italy.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Del Pup
authors.forename: Anna S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Belloni
authors.forename: Gianni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Carraro
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: De Angeli
authors.forename: Pier Paolo
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Parnigotto
authors.forename: Gastone G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Nussdorfer
mesh_terms: D053607:Adrenomedullin; D002455:Cell Division / Q000502:physiology*; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D010455:Peptides / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D010455:Peptides; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D053607:Adrenomedullin