Cookie Settings

We use cookies to optimize our website. These include cookies that are necessary for the operation of the site, as well as those that are only used for anonymous statistic. You can decide for yourself which categories you want to allow. Further information can be found in our data privacy protection .

Essential

These cookies are necessary to run the core functionalities of this website and cannot be disabled.

Name Webedition CMS
Purpose This cookie is required by the CMS (Content Management System) Webedition for the system to function correctly. Typically, this cookie is deleted when the browser is closed.
Name econda
Purpose Session cookie emos_jcsid for the web analysis software econda. This runs in the “anonymized measurement” mode. There is no personal reference. As soon as the user leaves the site, tracking is ended and all data in the browser are automatically deleted.
Statistics

These cookies help us understand how visitors interact with our website by collecting and analyzing information anonymously. Depending on the tool, one or more cookies are set by the provider.

Name econda
Purpose Statistics
External media

Content from external media platforms is blocked by default. If cookies from external media are accepted, access to this content no longer requires manual consent.

Name YouTube
Purpose Show YouTube content
Name Twitter
Purpose activate Twitter Feeds
Inflammatory Stress in Stem Cells

Division of Inflammatory Stress in Stem Cells

Dr. Marieke Essers

Pro-inflammatory cytokines link infection and inflammation to quiescent Hematopoietic Stem Cells (HSCs), leading to their activation.
© dkfz.de

Infection is a common, natural form of stress, with which the body is regularly challenged. During infection or inflammation, cells of the immune system are responsible for fighting the invading pathogens, leading to high consumption of blood and immune cells. Restoration of the balance of the hematopoietic system following successful elimination of the infection is a crucial part of the recovery of the body. In addition, both clinical and experimental data indicate that depending on the scale and duration, infection and inflammation can induce hematopoietic dysfunction compromising immune defense mechanisms and possibly contributing to the development of hematologic malignancies.

Restoring the balance of the hematopoietic system depends on the replacement of lost immune cells by hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Over the years, the biology of HSCs and their progeny has been studied in great detail during homeostasis. However little is known about how stress scenarios, such as infection-induced inflammatory responses, impact on HSC self-renewal and differentiation, controlling emergency hematopoiesis.

The focus of our research is to understand the link of inflammation and the hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) compartment via the effect of the pro-inflammatory cytokines on quiescent HSCs and their niche. The group focuses on three main themes:

  • the inflammatory response of HSCs in vivo
  • the response and role of the bone marrow niche under inflammatory stress
  • activation of leukemic stem cells by pro-inflammatory cytokines
The data we’ll generate in these projects will further our understanding on the mechanisms by which HSCs are reassuring the successful restoration of the blood system and how are HSCs protected from pathogenic insults. This will help us to better understand the response observed in patients with an intact, but also a compromised immune system, in which infection often lead to a severe disease. In addition, it might also open up possibilities to target quiescent leukemic stem cells (LSCs) for activation, making them susceptible to chemotherapy.

Contact

Dr. Marieke Essers
Inflammatory Stress in Stem Cells (A011)

Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum und Heidelberg Institut für Stammzelltechnologie und experimentelle Medizin (HI-STEM GmbH)
Im Neuenheimer Feld 280
69120 Heidelberg

Tel.: +49 6221 42 3919
E-Mail: m.essers@dkfz.de

Selected Publications

  • Velten L.*, Haas S.F.*, Raffel S.*, Blaszkiewicz S., Islam S., Hennig B.P., Hirche C., Lutz C., Buss E.C., Nowak D., Boch T., Hofmann W.-K. Ho A.D., Huber W., Trumpp A.#, Essers M.A.G.#, Steinmetz L.M.#. (2017). Human haematopoietic stem cell lineage commitment is a continuous process. Nat. Cell Biol. 19: pp271-281 * shared first author, # shared last and corresponding author
  • Prendergast A.M., Kuck A., van Essen M., Haas S., Blaszkiewicz S., Essers M.A. (2017). IFN? mediated remodeling of endothelial cells in the bone marrow niche. Haematologica, 102: pp445-453
  • Uckelmann H., Blaszkiewicz S., Nicolae C., Haas S., Schnell A., Wurzer S., Wagener R., Aszodi A., Essers M.A. (2016). Extracellular matrix protein Matrilin-4 regulates stress-induced HSC proliferation via CXCR4. J Exp. Med. 213: pp1961-1971
  • Haas S., Hansson J., Klimmeck D., Loeffler D., Velten L., Uckelmann H., Wurzer S., Prendergast Á.M., Schnell A., Hexel K., Santarella-Mellwig R., Blaszkiewicz S., Kuck A., Geiger H., Milsom M.D., Steinmetz L.M., Schroeder T., Trumpp A., Krijgsveld J., Essers M.A. (2015). Inflammation-induced emergency megakaryopoiesis driven by hematopoietic stem cell-like megakaryocyte progenitors. Cell Stem Cell 17: pp422-34
to top
powered by webEdition CMS