Since the lifespan of most mature blood cells is short, the homeostasis of blood relies on the self-renewal and differentiation of a long-lived but rare population of hematopoietic stem cells (HSPCs)1. HSPCs are quiescent, but they are quick to proliferate and undergo differentiation upon stimulation to sustain demands of the blood system. As each HSPC cellular state requires a unique bioenergetic demand, the metabolic changes are key drivers of HSPC fate decisions. Therefore, the loss of metabolic plasticity, by altering the equilibrium between quiescence, self-renewal, and differentiation of HSPCs, often leads to myelo- or lympho-proliferative disorders. Together, the understanding of metabolic regulation of HSPC development is critical to uncover mechanisms underlying hematologic malignancies2,3,4,5.
Mitochondrial respiration and glycolysis generate ATP to drive intracellular reactions and produce the building blocks necessary for macromolecule synthesis. Since HSPCs have low mitochondrial mass compared to differentiated cells6 and they sustain quiescence in hypoxic bone marrow niches, HSPCs primarily rely on glycolysis. Activation of HSPCs enhances their mitochondrial metabolism that leads to the loss of quiescence and their subsequent entry into the cell cycle. Such metabolic plasticity of HSPCs allows the maintenance of the HSPC pool throughout adult life6,7,8,9,10,11,12. Therefore, it is critical to investigate their metabolic activities, such as the oxygen consumption rate (OCR; index of oxidative phosphorylation) and the extracellular acidification rate (ECAR; index of glycolysis) to analyze the HSPC activation and the health status. Both the OCR and the ECAR can be measured simultaneously, in real time, using an extracellular flux analyzer. However, the current method requires large numbers of cells and is optimized for adherent cells13. Since HSPCs cannot be isolated in large quantities from mice14, require sorting to obtain a pure population, are non-adherent cells15, and cannot be cultured overnight without avoiding differentiation16, it has been difficult to measure the OCR and the ECAR of HSPCs. Here, we provide a set of clear, step-by-step instructions to accompany video-based tutorials on how to measure metabolic respiration and glycolysis of few thousands murine bone marrow-LineagenegSca1+c-Kit+ (LSK) HSPCs.