A novel population of cells expressing both hematopoietic and mesenchymal markers is present in the normal adult bone marrow and is augmented in a murine model of marrow fibrosis.

Bone marrow (BM) fibrosis is a feature of severe hyperparathyroidism. Consistent with this observation, mice expressing constitutively active parathyroid hormone (PTH)/PTH-related peptide receptors (PPR) in osteoblasts (PPR*Tg) display BM fibrosis. To obtain insight into the nature of BM fibrosis in such a model, a double-mutant mouse expressing constitutively active PPR and green fluorescent protein (GFP) under the control of the type I collagen promoter (PPR*Tg/GFP) was generated. Confocal microscopy and flow cytometry revealed the presence of a cell population expressing GFP (GFP(+)) that was also positive for the hematopoietic marker CD45 in the BM of both PPR*Tg/GFP and control animals. This cell population was expanded in PPR*Tg/GFP. The existence of cells expressing both type I collagen and CD45 in the adult BM was confirmed by IHC and fluorescence-activated cell sorting. An analysis of total RNA extracted from sorted GFP(+)CD45(+) cells showed that these cells produced type I collagen and PTH/PTH-related peptide receptor and receptor activator for NF-κB mRNAs, further supporting their features of being both mesenchymal and hematopoietic lineages. Similar cells, known as fibrocytes, are also present in pathological fibroses. Our findings, thus, indicate that the BM is a permissive microenvironment for the differentiation of fibrocyte-like cells and raise the possibility that these cells could contribute to the pathogenesis of BM fibrosis.