Blood pharming & regulation of blood group antigen expression
Research focus:
Blood pharming using embryonic, bone marrow-derived or induced stem cells represents a new and fascinating option to warrant the blood supply in the future. However, little is known about the mechanisms and factors that would allow highly efficient in vitro generation of enucleated blood cells from the above mentioned progenitors. Therefore, we are aiming to establish different strategies to generate immortalized cell lines from erythroid progenitors. Such cells could be used as an universal source for mature red blood cells and/or as a constant cell source for the long-term culture of parasites, such as the malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax.
To generate blood of a specific blood group, e.g. blood group 0 rhesus negative, we additionally investigate the regulatory mechanisms that control blood group antigen expression in the hematopoietic compartment.
Selected publications:
Kronstein-Wiedemann, R., Blecher, S., Teichert, M., Schmidt, L., Thiel, J., Müller, M.M., Lausen, J., Schäfer, R., and Tonn, T. (2023). Novel evidence that the ABO blood group shapes erythropoiesis and results in higher hematocrit for blood group B carriers. Leukemia. doi: 10.1038/s41375-023-01858-4
Kronstein-Wiedemann, R., Stadtmüller, M., Traikov, T., Georgi, M., Teichert, M., Yosef, H., Wallenborn, J., Karl, A., Schütze, K., Wagner, M., El-Armouche, A., and Tonn, T. (2022) SARS-CoV-2 infects red blood cell progenitors and dysregulates hemoglobin and iron metabolism. Stem Cells Reviews and Reports. doi: 10.1007/s12015-021-10322-8
Kronstein-Wiedemann, R., Nowakowska, P., Milanov, P., Gubbe, K., Seifried, E., Bugert, P., Chavakis, T., and Tonn, T. (2020). Regulation of ABO blood group antigen expression by miR-331-3p and miR-1908-5p during hematopoietic stem cell differentiation. Stem Cells. doi: 10.1002/stem.3251.
Kronstein-Wiedemann, R., Klop, O., Thiel, J., Milanov, P., Ruhland, C., Vermaat, L., Kocken, C. H. M., Tonn, T. and Pasini, E. M. (2020). K562 erythroleukemia line as a possible reticulocyte source to culture Plasmodium vivax and its surrogates. Exp Hematol doi: 10.1016/j.exphem.2020.01. 012