Vol.30 No.3 (2008 June): 323-328

Bone Marrow Hematopoietic Stem Cell Niches

Hong-Mei Tang, Jing Ma, Dai-Shu Han*

(Department of Cell Biology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100005, China)

Abstract Recent studies on the adult stem cells provide novel insight into treatment of many diseases. The hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are the best characterized adult stem cells. Bone marrow is the major tissue where HSCs reside and that is focused on stem cells research. Many concepts and characteristic of adult stem cells were achieved based on investigation of HSCs in bone marrow. Recently, studies on the role of niche in regulating development of HSCs have progressed rapidly. Stem cell niche, which is basic physiological unit, has been anatomically located. The niche mediates and integrates many signals that control the numbers and fate of HSCs in basal state. Furthermore, hematopoietic niche also function under the pathological conditions. Therefore, the studies in this area mainly focus on the hematopoietic niches. Here, we tried to review the progress in the components, signals and modification of hematopoietic niches in order to provide references for the study on stem cell niche.

Key words hematopoietic stem cells; stem cell niche; hematopoesis; signal pathways

Received: May 8, 2007 Accepted: February 28, 2008
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.30570678)
T*Corresponding author. Tel: 86-10-65296457, Fax: 86-10-65296466, E-mail: daishu@public.bta.net.cn