Transcriptomic analysis of BM-MSCs identified EGR1 as a transcription factor to fully exploit their therapeutic potential
Bone marrow-mesenchymal stromal cells (BM-MSCs) are key components of the BM niche, where they regulate hemato-poietic stem progenitor cells (HSPCs) homeostasis by direct contact and secreting soluble factors. BM-MSCs also protect the BM niche from excessive inflammation by releasing anti-inflammatory factors and modulating immune cell activity. Thanks to these proper-ties, BM-MSCs were successfully employed in pre-clinical HSPC transplantation models, increasing the rate of HSPC engraftment, accelerating the hematological reconstitution, and reducing the risk of graft failure. However, their clinical use requires extensive in vitro expansion, altering their biological and functional properties. In this work, we analyzed the transcriptomic profile of human BM-MSCs sorted as CD45neg, CD105+, CD73+, and CD90+ cells from the BM aspirates of heathy-donors and corresponding ex-vivo expanded BM-MSCs. We found the expression of immune and inflammatory genes downregulated upon cell culture and selected the transcription factor EGR1 to restore the MSC properties. We overexpressed EGR1 in BM-MSCs and performed in vitro tests to study the functional properties of EGR1-overexpressing BM-MSCs. We concluded that EGR1 increased the MSC response to inflam-matory stimuli and immune cell control and potentiated the MSC hematopoietic supportive activity in co-culture assay, suggesting that the EGR1-based reprogramming may improve the BM-MSC clinical use. Overall design: RNA sequencing of primary BM-MSCs, sorted from the BM aspirates of pediatric healthy donors (n=5) based on the expression of canonical MSC markers, and corresponding ex-vivo cultured MSCs.