IL-33/ST2 signaling in ILC2s drives exhaustion and myeloid skewing of HSCs in response to hematopoietic stress and aging

Inflammatory cues affect hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) homeostasis and drive proliferation and myeloid skewing of HSCs. The HSC niche in the bone marrow (BM) is populated by a variety of stromal and immune cells that sense and respond to cellular stress. We investigated how BM-resident type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) regulate HSC homeostasis and differentiation in steady state, during aging, and after genotoxic stress. We documented that PDGFR-α⁺sca-1⁺ mesenchymal stromal cells in the BM produced interleukin (IL)-33 with elevated levels after irradiation and during aging. IL-33/ST2 signaling in BM-resident ILC2s activated MAPK/NF-κB/JAK-STAT signaling and induced cytokine secretion. IL-6 and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), secreted by ILC2s, promoted HSCs to proliferate and differentiate into the myeloid lineage. Taken together, we identified that IL-33 produced by MSCs induced ILC2s to secrete myeloid differentiation factors leading to myeloid-skewed HSCs with reduced self-renewal during aging.