Histone demethylase Lsd1 represses hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell signatures during blood cell maturation

Our blood contains many different types of cells. Red blood cells carry oxygen around the body, whereas white blood cells are a key part of our immune system. All these different types of blood cells are derived from special cells in our bone marrow called hematopoietic stem cells. The type of blood cell that the stem cell becomes depends on the genes that are expressed as proteins in that stem cell. Gene expression can be controlled in a number of ways, including epigenetic process that influence the expression of genes without altering the underlying sequence of bases in the DNA. For example, DNA is wrapped around histone proteins and the addition of a methyl group to these proteins, a process known as histone methylation, can increase the expression of a gene, whereas the removal of a methyl group (demethylation) can repress gene expression. Lysine-specific demethylase 1 (Lsd1) is an enzyme that is known to mediate the demethylation of lysine amino acids on histone proteins. The role of Lsd1 in embryonic stem cells has been widely studied, and deletion of the gene that codes for Lsd1 is known to result in the death of mice embryos. However, very little is known about its roles in the later stages of mammalian development. Here, Kerenyi et al. use new genetic tools to knock out the gene for Lsd1 at different stages of development in order to examine its impact on the formation of new blood cells. They find that Lsd1 is required for the successful differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells into different types of blood cells, and that knocking out Lsd1 results in a severe loss of white and red blood cells. Moreover, they show that the lack of Lsd1 causes problems during both the early and later stages of development. Kerenyi et al. go on to demonstrate that Lsd1 regulates the activity of promoters and enhancers of various genes associated with hematopoietic stem cells. They also show that knocking out the Lsd1 gene results in impaired silencing of these genes, and that the incomplete expression of these genes is not compatible with the maturation of blood cells. Lsd1 has recently been proposed as the potential target for the treatment of leukemia and other blood disorders. However, the fact that a loss of Lsd1 function has adverse effects during both the early and later stages of blood cell development suggests that research into drugs that target Lsd1 should not begin until a suitable time window for the administration of such drugs can be identified.