Source: California Institute of Technology
Date: August 4, 2010
Summary:
PASADENA, Calif.—Hematopoietic stem cells provide the body with a constant supply of blood cells, including the red blood cells that deliver oxygen and the white blood cells that make up the immune system. Hematopoietic—or blood—stem cells must also make more copies of themselves to ensure that they are present in adequate numbers to provide blood throughout a person's lifetime, which means they need to strike a delicate balance between self-renewal and development into mature blood-cell lineages. Perturb that balance, and the result can be diseases such as leukemia and anemia.
One key to fighting these diseases is gaining an understanding of the genes and molecules that control the function of these stem cells. Biologists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have taken a large step toward that end, with the discovery of a novel group of molecules that are found in high concentrations within hematopoietic stem cells and appear to regulate their production.
A paper about the work was published July 26 in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
