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Haematopoiesis

HSC function determined by epigenetic memory

Nature Reviews Immunology volume 17, page 5 (2017)Cite this article

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Haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are functionally heterogeneous, having distinctive behaviours in terms of proliferative potential and lineage bias. They are often thought of as 'plastic' cells that can adapt their function to the needs of the organism, in terms of homeostasis or the response to stress, by responding to environmental factors. However, the results of a new study published in Cell call these assumptions into question by showing that individual HSC clones have a stereotypical behaviour that is determined by their retained epigenetic state.

Poly(I:C)-induced Mx1–Cre;HUe mice contained clusters of HSCs of the same colour that represented clonal descendants, and these colour signatures were stably retained in vitro and in vivo. Studying the dynamics of normal haematopoiesis in these mice showed that a few major HSC clones persist over the course of many months, whereas other clones expand, disappear or newly emerge, which is consistent with other recent studies showing that the majority of the haematopoietic system is maintained by just a few out of many clones.

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References

  1. Yu, V. W. C. et al. Epigenetic memory underlies cell-autonomous heterogeneous behavior of hematopoietic stem cells. Cell http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2016.10.045 167, 1310–1322 (2016)

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Authors
  1. Kirsty Minton
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Minton, K. HSC function determined by epigenetic memory. Nat Rev Immunol 17, 5 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nri.2016.140

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