Alcam-a and Pdgfr-α are essential for the development of sclerotome derived stromal cells that support hematopoiesis in vivo

Mesenchymal stromal cells are essential components of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell (HSPC) niches, regulating HSPC proliferation and fate decisions. Their developmental origins are largely unknown. In zebrafish, we previously found that the stromal cells of the caudal hematopoietic tissue (CHT), a niche functionally homologous to the fetal liver in mammals, arise from the ventral part of caudal somites. We have now discovered that this ventral domain is actually the sclerotome, and that two typical markers of mammalian mesenchymal stem/stromal cells, Alcam and Pdgfr-α, are distinctively expressed there and instrumental for the emergence and migration of stromal cell progenitors, which in turn conditions the proper assembly of the vascular component of the CHT niche. Furthermore, we find that the trunk somites are similarly dependent on Alcam and Pdgfr-α to produce mesenchymal stromal cells that foster the initial emergence of HSPCs from the dorsal aorta. Thus the sclerotome contributes essential stromal cells for each of the key steps of developmental hematopoiesis, and likely is the embryological origin of most if not all mesenchymal stem/stromal cells found in non-cephalic tissues.