Iron homeostasis governs erythroid phenotype in Polycythemia Vera

Abstract

Polycythemia Vera (PV) is a myeloproliferative neoplasm driven by activating mutations in JAK2 that result in unrestrained erythrocyte production, increasing patients' hematocrit and hemoglobin concentration, placing them at risk of life-threatening thrombotic events. Our GWAS of 440 PV cases and 403,351 controls utilizing UK Biobank data found that SNPs in HFE known to cause hemochromatosis are highly associated with PV diagnosis, linking iron regulation to PV. Analysis of the FinnGen dataset independently confirmed over-representation of homozygous HFE variants in PV patients. HFE influences the expression of hepcidin, the master regulator of systemic iron homeostasis. Through genetic dissection of PV mouse models, we show that the PV erythroid phenotype is directly linked to hepcidin expression: endogenous hepcidin upregulation alleviates erythroid disease whereas hepcidin ablation worsens it. Further, we demonstrate that in PV, hepcidin is not regulated by expanded erythropoiesis but is likely governed by inflammatory cytokines signaling via GP130 coupled receptors. These findings have important implications for understanding the pathophysiology of PV and offer new therapeutic strategies for this disease.