A study published in the May issue of Developmental Cell identifies specific genes that appear to be key players in the regulation of human-blood stem cells.
This work is the first to validate gene expression analysis in human stem cells with functional experiments. The findings also suggest that changes in the expression of genes associated with universal cell signaling pathways can have a substantial impact on human stem cell behavior.
Formation and ongoing maintenance of blood cells begins with a rare cell called a hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) that has the ability to make more copies of itself or differentiate into progenitors that then form red blood cells, various types of white blood cells, or platelets. Blood cells must be constantly renewed throughout the lifetime of an animal, so control and regulation of HSCs is critical for survival. Although it is clear that the capacity for HSC proliferation and differentiation declines with age, not much is known about exactly how HSC physiology is regulated.