Background: Psychological stress induces rapid and longlasting changes in blood cell composition, implying the existence of stress-induced factors that modulate hematopoiesis. Here we report the involvement of the stressassociated "readthrough" acetylcholinesterase (AChE-R) variant, and its 26 amino acid C-terminal domain (ARP) in hematopoietic stress responses. Materials and Methods:We studied the effects of stress, cortisol, antisense oligonucleotides to AChE, and synthetic ARP on peripheral blood cell composition and clonogenic progenitor status in mice under normal and stress conditions, and on purified CD34 1 cells of human origin. We employed in situ hybridization and immunocytochemical staining to monitor gene expression, and 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine (BrdU), primary liquid cultures, and clonogenic progenitor assays to correlate AChE-R and The first two authors contributed equally to this investigation. ARP with proliferation and differentiation of hematopoietic progenitors. Results: We identified two putative glucocorticoid response elements in the human ACHE gene encoding AChE. In human CD34 1 hematopoietic progenitor cells, cortisol elevated AChE-R mRNA levels and promoted hematopoietic expansion. In mice, a small peptide crossreacting with anti-ARP antiserum appeared in serum following forced swim stress. Ex vivo, ARP was more effective than cortisol and equally as effective as stem cell factor in promoting expansion and differentiation of early hematopoietic progenitor cells into myeloid and megakaryocyte lineages. Conclusions: Our findings attribute a role to AChE-R and ARP in hematopoietic homeostasis following stress, and suggest the use of ARP in clinical settings where ex vivo expansion of progenitor cells is required.

Accumulated evidence attributes noncatalytic morphogenic activitie(s) to acetylcholinesterase (AChE

3'-End-capped, 20-mer antisense oligodeoxynucleotides (AS-ODN) protected with 2'-O-methyl (Me) or phosphorothioate (PS) substitutions were targeted to acetylcholinesterase (AChE) mRNA and studied in PC12 cells. Me-modified AS-ODN suppressed AChE activity up to 50% at concentrations of 0.02-100 nM. PS-ODN was effective at 1-100 nM. Both AS-ODN displayed progressively decreased efficacy above 10 nM. In situ hybridization and confocal microscopy demonstrated dose-dependent decreases, then increases, in AChE mRNA. Moreover, labeling at nuclear foci suggested facilitated transcription or stabilization of AChE mRNA or both under AS-ODN. Intracellular concentrations of biotinylated oligonucleotide equaled those of target mRNA at extracellular concentrations of 0.02 nM yet increased only 6-fold at 1 microM ODN. Above 50 nM, sequence-independent swelling of cellular, but not nuclear, volume was observed. Our findings demonstrate suppressed AChE expression using extremely low concentrations of AS-ODN and attribute reduced efficacy at higher concentrations to complex host cell feedback responses.