Identification and Isolation of Burst-Forming Unit and Colony-Forming Unit Erythroid Progenitors from Mouse Tissue by Flow Cytometry

Early erythroid progenitors were originally defined by their colony-forming potential in vitro and classified into burst-forming and colony-forming "units" known as BFU-e and CFU-e. Until recently, methods for the direct prospective and complete isolation of pure BFU-e and CFU-e progenitors from freshly isolated adult mouse bone marrow were not available. To address this gap, a single-cell RNA-seq (scRNAseq) dataset of mouse bone marrow was analyzed for the expression of genes coding for cell surface markers. This analysis was combined with cell fate assays, allowing the development of a novel flow cytometric approach that identifies and allows the isolation of complete and pure subsets of BFU-e and CFU-e progenitors in mouse bone marrow or spleen. This approach also identifies other progenitor subsets, including subsets enriched for basophil/mast cell and megakaryocytic potentials. The method consists of labeling fresh bone marrow or spleen cells with antibodies directed at Kit and CD55. Progenitors that express both these markers are then subdivided into five principal populations. Population 1 (P1 or CFU-e, Kit CD55 CD49f CD105 CD71) contains all of the CFU-e progenitors and may be further subdivided into P1-low (CD71 CD150) and P1-hi (CD71 CD150), corresponding to early and late CFU-e, respectively; Population 2 (P2 or BFU-e, Kit CD55 CD49f CD105 CD71 CD150) contains all of the BFU-e progenitors; Population P3 (P3, Kit CD55 CD49f CD105 CD150 CD41) is enriched for basophil/mast cell progenitors; Population 4 (P4, Kit CD55 CD49f CD105 CD150 CD41) is enriched for megakaryocytic progenitors; and Population 5 (P5, Kit CD55 CD49f CD105 CD150 CD41) contains progenitors with erythroid, basophil/mast cell, and megakaryocytic potential (EBMP) and erythroid/ megakaryocytic/ basophil-biased multipotential progenitors (MPPs). This novel approach allows greater precision when analyzing erythroid and other hematopoietic progenitors and also allows for reference to transcriptome information for each flow cytometrically defined population.