Researchers Discover Early Step in Blood Stem Cell Development …

Madison, Wisconsin - University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) researchers have discovered a very early regulatory event that controls the production of blood stem cells and the adult blood system.

Video: The dorsal aorta (magenta), a major blood vessel in a mammalian embryo, is the site where the bodys first blood-producing stem cells emerge. Budding out of the endothelial cells that line the inside of the blood vessel, the adult blood stem cells (green) - those same cells that produce a lifetime of blood - are formed. The image was produced by Xin Gao using confocal microscopy.

Corrupting the process of stem cell production during development can be lethal at an early stage of an embryos development, but problems with production during adulthood can yield a variety of diseases like leukemia.

The dorsal aorta, a major blood vessel in a mammalian embryo, is the site where the bodys first blood-producing stem cells emerge.

Budding out of the endothelial cells that line the inside of the blood vessel, the adult blood stem cells - those same cells that produce a lifetime of blood - are formed.

A protein known as RUNX-1 allows these hemogenic (hemo- meaning blood, and -genic meaning to produce) endothelial cells to form stem cells. RUNX-1, a regulator of specific genes, is known to promote the production of these stem cells.

Original post:
Researchers Discover Early Step in Blood Stem Cell Development ...