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Publication Detail

Title: Arsenite exposure inhibits the erythroid differentiation of human hematopoietic progenitor CD34+ cells and causes decreased levels of hemoglobin.

Authors: Wan, Guanghua; Medina, Sebastian; Zhang, Haikun; Pan, Rong; Zhou, Xixi; Bolt, Alicia M; Luo, Li; Burchiel, Scott W; Liu, Ke Jian

Published In Sci Rep, (2021 11 11)

Abstract: Arsenic exposure poses numerous threats to human health. Our previous work in mice has shown that arsenic causes anemia by inhibiting erythropoiesis. However, the impacts of arsenic exposure on human erythropoiesis remain largely unclear. We report here that low-dose arsenic exposure inhibits the erythroid differentiation of human hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs). The impacts of arsenic (in the form of arsenite; As3+) on red blood cell (RBC) development was evaluated using a long-term culture of normal human bone marrow CD34+-HPCs stimulated in vitro to undergo erythropoiesis. Over the time course studied, we analyzed the expression of the cell surface antigens CD34, CD71 and CD235a, which are markers commonly used to monitor the progression of HPCs through the stages of erythropoiesis. Simultaneously, we measured hemoglobin content, which is an important criterion used clinically for diagnosing anemia. As compared to control, low-dose As3+ exposure (100 nM and 500 nM) inhibited the expansion of CD34+-HPCs over the time course investigated; decreased the number of committed erythroid progenitors (BFU-E and CFU-E) and erythroblast differentiation in the subsequent stages; and caused a reduction of hemoglobin content. These findings demonstrate that low-dose arsenic exposure impairs human erythropoiesis, likely by combined effects on various stages of RBC formation.

PubMed ID: 34764389 Exiting the NIEHS site

MeSH Terms: Anemia/chemically induced; Anemia/metabolism; Antigens, CD/metabolism; Antigens, CD34/metabolism*; Arsenites/adverse effects*; Cell Differentiation/drug effects*; Cells, Cultured; Erythroblasts/drug effects; Erythroblasts/metabolism; Erythroid Precursor Cells/drug effects*; Erythroid Precursor Cells/metabolism; Erythropoiesis/drug effects; Glycophorins/metabolism; Hematopoietic Stem Cells/drug effects*; Hematopoietic Stem Cells/metabolism; Hemoglobins/metabolism*; Humans; Receptors, Transferrin/metabolism

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