Age-related exacerbation of hematopoietic organ damage induced by systemic hyper-inflammation in senescence-accelerated mice

Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a life-threatening systemic hyper-inflammatory disorder. The mortality of HLH is higher in the elderly than in young adults. Senescence-accelerated mice (SAMP1/TA-1) exhibit characteristic accelerated aging after 30 weeks of age, and HLH-like features, including hematopoietic organ damage, are seen after lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatment. Thus, SAMP1/TA-1 is a useful model of hematological pathophysiology in the elderly with HLH. In this study, dosing of SAMP1/TA-1 mice with LPS revealed that the suppression of myelopoiesis and B-lymphopoiesis was more severe in aged mice than in young mice. The bone marrow (BM) expression of genes encoding positive regulators of myelopoiesis (G-CSF, GM-CSF, and IL-6) and of those encoding negative regulators of B cell lymphopoiesis (TNF-α) increased in both groups, while the expression of genes encoding positive-regulators of B cell lymphopoiesis (IL-7, SDF-1, and SCF) decreased. The expression of the GM-CSF-encoding transcript was lower in aged mice than in young animals. The production of GM-CSF by cultured stromal cells after LPS treatment was also lower in aged mice than in young mice. The accumulation of the TNF-α-encoding transcript and the depletion of the IL-7-encoding transcript were prolonged in aged mice compared to young animals. LPS dosing led to a prolonged increase in the proportion of BM M1 macrophages in aged mice compared to young animals. The expression of the gene encoding p16 INK4a and the proportion of β-galactosidase- and phosphorylated ribosomal protein S6-positive cells were increased in cultured stromal cells from aged mice compared to those from young animals, while the proportion of Ki67-positive cells was decreased in stromal cells from aged mice. Thus, age-related deterioration of stromal cells probably causes the suppression of hematopoiesis in aged mice. This age-related latent organ dysfunction may be exacerbated in elderly people with HLH, resulting in poor prognosis.