One important line of our work has revealed mechanisms
how hematopoietic stem cells can generate more myeloid cells to protect transplant recipients from lethal infections.
The researchers focused on
how hematopoietic stem cells developed into one of two types of white blood cells: macrophages or neutrophils.
Basic research has centered on identifying and characterizing hematopoietic stem cells, however, it is still not clear
how hematopoietic stem cells actually work, and how they are regulated because of the complexity of the bone marrow microenvironment.
Not exact matches
Meanwhile, recent human studies indicate that aging is associated with an increase in somatic mutations in the
hematopoietic system, which gives rise to blood cells; these mutations provide a competitive growth advantage to the mutant
hematopoietic cells, allowing for their clonal expansion — a process that has been shown to be associated with a greater incidence of atherosclerosis, though specifically
how remains unclear.
Hematopoietic stem cells under the microscope: New methods are helping the Helmholtz scientists to predict
how they will develop.
In the context of the current study, TRAF6's regulation of RNA isoform expression is important to the function of
hematopoietic cells and reveals another dimension to
how cells respond to infection, Starczynkowski said.
Finally, I will show
how we have combined our results to generate a model of
hematopoietic differentiation where specific transcription factors control lineage regulatory regions; our model predicts many already known lineage - controlling factors as well as finds new potential regulators of
hematopoietic differentiation such as ATF3 in monocytes and Tcf7l2 and Runx2 in NK cells.
A major scientific puzzle, said Singh, has been
how and why immature
hematopoietic stem cells initially express genes that are characteristic of more than one cell lineage.
In her project, Sipkins will investigate molecular characteristics of tissue microenvironments, or «niches,» within the bone marrow and
how normal, healthy
hematopoietic stem cells, which give rise to the many kinds of blood cells, compete with malignant cells to occupy these coveted niches.
For example, we have no information about
how these newly - generated HPCs will compete with autologous bone marrow cells for
hematopoietic niches in the recipient mice.
Dr. Gazit is focusing on
how to develop targeted treatment of cancer cells using
hematopoietic stem cells — stem cells used in cancer treatment because of their ability to divide and form new and different kinds of blood cells.
Utilizing sophisticated genetically engineered mouse models, we will study
how these conserved longevity pathways regulate the homeostasis and aging of adult stem cells, including
hematopoietic stem cells, the adult stem cells that sustain all blood lineages throughout life.