Intercellular Transfer of Microvesicles from Young Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Rejuvenates Aged Murine Hematopoietic Stem Cells

Donor age is one of the major concerns in bone marrow transplantation, as the aged hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) fail to engraft efficiently. Here, using murine system, we show that a brief interaction of aged HSCs with young mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) rejuvenates them and restores their functionality via inter-cellular transfer of microvesicles (MVs) containing autophagy-related mRNAs. Importantly, we show that MSCs gain activated AKT signaling as a function of aging. Activated AKT reduces the levels of autophagy-related mRNAs in their MVs, and partitions miR-17 and miR-34a into their exosomes, which upon transfer into HSCs downregulate their autophagy-inducing mRNAs. Our data identify previously unknown mechanisms operative in the niche-mediated aging of HSCs. Inhibition of AKT in aged MSCs increases the levels of autophagy-related mRNAs in their MVs and reduces the levels of miR-17 and miR-34a in their exosomes. Interestingly, transplantation experiments showed that the rejuvenating power of these "rescued" MVs is even better than that of the young MVs. We demonstrate that such ex vivo rejuvenation of aged HSCs could expand donor cohort and improve transplantation efficacy.