Nicotinamide inhibits self-renewal and induces granulocyte differentiation of multipotent progenitor cells

Nicotinamide (NAM) a form of vitamin B3, is an essential precursor of NAD. This dinucleotide (pyridine nucleotide) participates in the regulation of fundamental processes including transcription, cell cycle progression and DNA repair. Here we assessed the effect of NAM on myeloid differentiation of the IL-3 dependent, multipotent hematopoietic progenitor cell line FDCP-Mix. We found that NAM reduces the pSTAT5 signaling response, cell cycling and self-renewal potential. It initiates an atypical program of myeloid differentiation that results in the emergence of granulocytic cells in the absence of added myeloid differentiation factors. NAM did not affect the expression the of cell surface granulocyte marker GR1 but led to a strong downregulation of MHC-II molecules. Taken together our data show that NAM induces a differentiation program in hematopoietic progenitors prompting them to undergo differentiation along the granulocyte path without reaching the status of fully developed granulocytes.