BMEC-1: a Human Bone Marrow Microvascular Endothelial Cell Line with Primary Cell Characteristics

Bone marrow microvascular endothelial cells (BMEC) are a functional component of the bone marrow stroma and have been shown to release hematopoietic regulatory factors as well as to selectively adhere and support the proliferation and differentiation of CD34+ hematopoietic progenitors. An early passage of these cells was immortalized by transfection with a vector (pSVT) encoding the large T antigen of SV40. The transformed cell line (CDC/CU.BMEC-1) expresses the SV40 transcript, retains the primary cell expression of Ulex europeaus and vWF/ FVIII, and incorporates acetylated low-density lipoprotein. In addition, BMEC-1 mirrors the phenotype of the primary cells with only a few exceptions. Both cell populations express the cellular adhesion molecules ICAM-1 and PECAM and also VCAM-1 and ELAM-1 after upregulation by tumor necrosis factor-alpha. The fibronectin receptor, hyaluronate receptor, collagen receptor, integrins VLA-alpha 3, VLA-alpha 4, and beta 4, endoglin, collagen IV, CD58, and CD61 are also expressed. The only differences are that BMEC-1 expresses higher levels of ICAM-1, CD58, CD34, CD36, and c-kit than the primary cells. The supernatants of primary cell and BMEC-1 contain stem cell factor, interleukin-6 (IL-6), granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), IL-1 alpha, IL-11, and G-CSF. The functional significance of these hematopoietic cytokines was demonstrated in transwell cultures. Both cell populations supported the expansion of progeny from CD34+ cell-enriched cord blood mononuclear cells suspended in the upper chamber. These characteristics, plus the fact that BMEC-1 can be maintained independently of exogenous growth factors and exhibit contact inhibition, indicate that this cell line can be used to further define the role of BMEC in hematopoiesis.