A Reporter Mouse Reveals Lineage-Specific and Heterogeneous Expression of IRF8 during Lymphoid and Myeloid Cell Differentiation

The IFN regulatory factor family member 8 (IRF8) regulates differentiation of lymphoid and myeloid lineage cells by promoting or suppressing lineage-specific genes. How IRF8 promotes hematopoietic progenitors to commit to one lineage while preventing the development of alternative lineages is not known. In this study, we report an IRF8–EGFP fusion protein reporter mouse that revealed previously unrecognized patterns of IRF8 expression. Differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells into oligopotent progenitors is associated with progressive increases in IRF8-EGFP expression. However, significant induction of IRF8-EGFP is found in granulocyte–myeloid progenitors and the common lymphoid progenitors but not the megakaryocytic–erythroid progenitors. Surprisingly, IRF8-EGFP identifies three subsets of the seemingly homogeneous granulocyte–myeloid progenitors with an intermediate level of expression of EGFP defining bipotent progenitors that differentiation into either EGFPhi monocytic progenitors or EGFPlo granulocytic progenitors. Also surprisingly, IRF8-EGFP revealed a highly heterogeneous pre–pro-B population with a fluorescence intensity ranging from background to 4 orders above background. Interestingly, IRF8–EGFP readily distinguishes true B cell committed (EGFPint) from those that are noncommitted. Moreover, dendritic cell progenitors expressed extremely high levels of IRF8-EGFP. Taken together, the IRF8-EGFP reporter revealed previously unrecognized subsets with distinct developmental potentials in phenotypically well-defined oligopotent progenitors, providing new insights into the dynamic heterogeneity of developing hematopoietic progenitors.