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Many pathways regulating blood formation have been elucidated, yet how each coordinates with embryonic biophysiology to modulate the spatiotemporal production of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) is currently unresolved. Here, we report that glucose metabolism impacts the onset and magnitude of HSC induction in vivo. In zebrafish, transient elevations in physiological glucose levels elicited dose-dependent effects on HSC development, including enhanced runx1 expression and hematopoietic cluster formation in the aorta-gonad-mesonephros region; embryonic-to-adult transplantation studies confirmed glucose increased functional HSCs. Glucose uptake was required to mediate the enhancement in HSC development; likewise, metabolic inhibitors diminished nascent HSC production and reversed glucose-mediated effects on HSCs. Increased glucose metabolism preferentially impacted hematopoietic and vascular targets, as determined by gene expression analysis, through mitochondrial-derived reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated stimulation of hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (hif1α). Epistasis assays demonstrated that hif1α regulates HSC formation in vivo and mediates the dose-dependent effects of glucose metabolism on the timing and magnitude of HSC production. We propose that this fundamental metabolic-sensing mechanism enables the embryo to respond to changes in environmental energy input and adjust hematopoietic output to maintain embryonic growth and ensure viability.

The Evi1 locus was originally identified as a common site of retroviral integration in murine myeloid tumors. Several reports associate Evi1 expression with aggressiveness in myeloid leukemia. Since developmental pathways often reactivate in cancer, we hypothesized that Evi1 also plays critical roles during developmental hematopoiesis. Here, we employ the zebrafish model to study how evi1 modulates early blood development. We find that indeed zebrafish evi1 co-localizes with the hematopoietic markers scl, gata1, pu.1 and gata2 in the posterior lateral mesoderm and the rostral blood islands, indicating involvement in primitive hematopoiesis. Knockdown of evi1 via three independent Morpholino Oligonucleotides impairs embryonic myelopoiesis as shown by reduced pu.1, mpo and l-plastin staining, while not affecting hemangioblast formation and primitive erythropoiesis. Additionally, we observe reduced levels of cd41 expression upon evi1 knockdown, indicating that megakaryopoiesis is also impaired. Notably, at later time-points, evi1 is also expressed in the AGM region and evi1 morphants show strong reduction of runx1/c-myb expression in this region, demonstrating an additional role in hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) formation. Consistently, evi1 morphants lack ikaros+ lymphocyte precursor cells and rag1+ T-lymphocytes, and less circulating globin+, lyz+ and cd41+ cells are detected in transgenic fish analyzed by flow cytometry at 5 days post fertilization. To dissect the mechanisms by which evi1 regulates HSC formation, we furthermore analyzed genes specifically expressed in the dorsal aorta, where HSCs emerge from the hemogenic endothelium. We hypothesize that evi1 is indeed regulating HSC specification from hemogenic endothelial cells, since detailed analyses show defective aortic expression of efnb2a and dlc. How this effect is mediated is currently being investigated. Furthermore, TUNEL, anti-activated Caspase-3, anti-phospho Histone H3 and BrdU assays show both increased apoptosis and decreased proliferation in the AGM region of evi1 morphants as compared to control injected fish, suggesting important additional effects of evi1 on HSC biology beyond the specification step. Similar effects are seen in the rostral blood islands and are possibly responsible for the observed reduction of primitive myeloid progenitors. We also examined potential downstream targets of evi1. Previous reports in adult murine hematopoietic cells suggest that Evi1 affects HSC proliferation through regulation of Gata2. Indeed, gata2 co-injection enhances hematopoietic cell viability also in zebrafish embryos, and co-injection of gata2 mRNA is able to fully rescue both primitive myelopoiesis and HSC formation. We are currently investigating whether gata2 expression can compensate evi1 requirement during HSC specification or, alternatively, might rescue HSC numbers by amplifying residual HSCs that escape evi1 inhibition. Taken together, our data demonstrate that evi1 plays multiple roles during hematopoietic development, critically regulating the biology of primitive myeloid progenitors and pre-formed HSCs, as well as HSC specification from the hemogenic endothelium. Currently, we analyze the molecular mechanisms that mediate evi1 effects during these different regulatory steps and use the CRISPR/Cas9 system to generate evi1 mutant fish for further validation of our findings. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

While the genetic control of hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) function is increasingly understood, less is known about factors that pattern the embryonic hematopoietic niche and specify the location of HSC emergence. 17beta-estradiol (E2) and related estrogenic compounds were identified in a zebrafish chemical genetic screen as modifiers of the number of runx1+ HSCs in the Aorta-Gonad-Mesonephros region. Exposure to exogenous E2 during hematopoietic specification significantly decreased production of runx1+ HSCs by in situ hybridization (ISH) and qPCR (p Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Abstract 3379 The Growth Factor Independence (Gfi) zinc finger transcription factors play essential roles in hematopoiesis, differentially activating and repressing transcriptional programs required for hematopoietic lineage specification. In mammals, Gfi1 regulates hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) and lymphoid populations, while Gfi1b is required for megakaryocyte and erythroid development (van der Meer, et al. 2010 Leukemia 11:1834–43). In zebrafish, gfi1.1 plays an essential role in primitive hematopoiesis, preserving primitive HSC populations and regulating the erythroid-myeloid balance (Wei, et al. 2008 Cell Res. 6:677–85). However, little is known about the role of gfi1.1 in definitive hematopoiesis or about the role of additional hematopoietic gfi family members in zebrafish. Here, we report the isolation and characterization of an additional zebrafish gfi family transcription factor, gfi1.2b. We compare and contrast gfi1.1 and gfi1.2b, showing that they are highly expressed in the intermediate cell mass (ICM) and aorta-gonad-mesonephros (AGM), the respective sites of primitive and definitive hematopoiesis in zebrafish. Using antisense morpholino oligos (MO), whole mount in situ hybridization (WISH) and fluorescent activated cell sorting (FACS) of transgenic reporter fish, we demonstrate that gfi1.1 and gfi1.2b have distinct, essential roles in preserving primitive and definitive HSC populations, respectively. Loss of gfi1.1 specifically silences expression of scl and gata-1, markers of primitive HSC and erythroid progenitors. Conversely, loss of gfi1.2b silences expression of Tg(cd41:eGFPlo) cells, indicating an essential role for gfi1.2b in preserving definitive hematopoietic progenitors (Ma, et al. 2011 Blood 118:289–297). Consistent with the discrete roles of gfi1.1 and gfi1.2b in primitive and definitive lineages, knockdown of gfi1.2b silences lymphocyte rag-1 expression in the developing thymus, while knockdown of gfi1.1 has no effect on the thymic lymphocyte population. gfi1.1 and gfi1.2b have overlapping roles in erythropoiesis, as loss of either gfi factor reduces erythrocyte populations, while loss of both gfi paralogs results in a more profound silencing of erythrocytes. We further demonstrate that loss of gata-1 reduces gfi1.1 expression and silences gfi1.2b, suggesting that gata-1 plays an essential role in regulating the transcription of both genes. Together, these studies demonstrate that gfi1.1 and gfi1.2b have distinct and overlapping roles in zebrafish hematopoiesis and establish a new paradigm for the regulation of primitive and definitive hematopoietic lineages by gfi transcription factors. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Abstract 1617 The intrinsic signaling pathways regulating hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) are increasingly well recognized. However, less is known about how in utero exposure to common environmental xenobiotic compounds may alter HSC development and increase the risk of carcinogenesis. RUNX1 (AML1), required for definitive HSC induction in all vertebrates, is the target of frequent chromosomal alterations associated with leukemia. Through a chemical genetic screen for modifiers of runx1 expression in the zebrafish, estrogen-related compounds were identified. Here, we found that exposure to 17β-estradiol (E2) throughout the initial waves of hematopoietic development (5 somites (som) to 36 hours post fertilization (hpf)) significantly altered the number of runx1+ HSCs in the zebrafish Aorta-Gonad-Mesonephros Region (AGM) compared to controls (n≥25-50 embryos /condition). Other physiological estrogens, such as estrone and estriol, elicited a similar hematopoietic response. However, treatment with either the isomer 17α-estradiol, or the related steroid hormones testosterone or progesterone, could not mimic the effect of E2 on HSCs. Use of the aromatase inhibitor anastrozole and the pan-estrogen receptor inhibitor fulvestrant confirmed that estrogen was both required for nascent HSC regulation and functioned through classical estrogen receptor (esr) signaling. Microarray analysis of FACS-sorted cell populations during zebrafish development demonstrated differential spatio-temporal regulation of esr1 (esrα) and esr2a/b (esrβ) in vascular and hematopoietic cell types. During the primitive wave of hematopoiesis, exposure to E2 and the esr1-agonist PPT significantly enhanced red blood cell number as seen by in situ hybridization for embryonic globin (hbbe3) and quantified by fluorescent microscopy and FACS analysis of the Tg(globin:GFP) line. Conversely, the esr2-specific agonist DPN diminished definitive HSC formation after exposure from 5 som to 24 hpf; this phenotype was mediated by disruption of vessel formation, as indicated by flk1 (kdrl) expression, and alteration in the assignment of artery-vein identity. Interestingly, when exposure to E2 or DPN occurred from 24 – 36 hpf, after the establishment of ephb2+ arteries and the initiation of blood flow, estrogen treatment enhanced HSC formation; this was confirmed by FACS analysis and fluorescent microscopy using the Tg(cmyb:eGFP) and Tg(-6.0itga2b:eGFP)la2 (CD41:GFP) HSC-reporter lines. E2 treatment was found to elicit both pro-apoptotic (TUNEL+) and pro-proliferative (BrdU+) effects on HSCs and the vascular niche depending on the timing of exposure, but independent of the concentration of E2 over the physiological range and above (10nM to 10mM). Morpholino-mediated gene knockdown of esr1 and the two esr2 alleles alone and in combination with E2 confirmed that esr2 was responsible for the effects on definitive hematopoiesis. Using the Tg(TOP:GFP)w25 line, alterations in estrogen signaling were shown to mediate effects on wnt activity. To determine whether exposure to environmental estrogens could mediate similar alterations in HSC specification and proliferation, we exposed embryos to the phytoestrogen genistein, the synthetic estrogen ethinylestradiol, and the xenoestrogen bisphenol A (BPA) and found results reminiscent of E2; using fulvestrant, we confirmed that the phenotype elicited by each was dependent on estrogen receptor stimulation. In an adult zebrafish marrow injury model, E2 significantly enhanced stem and progenitor cell regeneration in males and females by day 10 post irradiation (n≥10 /condition). Intriguingly, we found that females, with higher circulating estrogen levels, recovered better after injury than male siblings, both in the presence and absence of exogenous estrogen. Finally, murine bone marrow treated with E2 or DPN produced significantly (n=10 /condition, p Disclosures: Goessling: Fate Therapeutics: Consultancy, Patents & Royalties. North:Fate Therapeutics: Consultancy, Patents & Royalties.