Lack of adenosine A(3) receptors causes defects in mouse peripheral blood parameters

Abstract

The role of the adenosine A(3) receptor in hematopoiesis was studied using adenosine A(3) receptor knockout (A(3)AR KO) mice. Hematological parameters of peripheral blood and femoral bone marrow of irradiated and untreated A(3)AR KO mice and their wild-type (WT) counterparts were investigated. Irradiation of the mice served as a defined hematopoiesis-damaging means enabling us to evaluate contingent differences in the pattern of experimentally induced hematopoietic suppression between the A(3)AR KO mice and WT mice. Defects were observed in the counts and/or functional parameters of blood cells in the A(3)AR KO mice. These defects include statistically significantly lower values of blood neutrophil and monocyte counts, as well as those of mean erythrocyte volume, mean erythrocyte hemoglobin, blood platelet counts, mean platelet volume, and plateletcrit, and can be considered to bear evidence of the lack of a positive role played by the adenosine A(3) receptor in the hematopoietic system. Statistically significantly increased values of the bone marrow parameters studied in A(3)AR KO mice (femoral bone marrow cellularity, granulocyte/macrophage progenitor cells, and erythrocyte progenitor cells) can probably be explained by compensatory mechanisms attempting to offset the disorders in the function of blood elements in these mice. The pattern of the radiation-induced hematopoietic suppression was very similar in A(3)AR KO mice and their WT counterparts.