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Blood cell generation from the hemangioblast

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Abstract

Understanding how blood cells are generated is important from a biological perspective but also has potential implications in the treatment of blood diseases. Such knowledge could potentially lead to defining new conditions to amplify hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) or could translate into new methods to produce HSCs, or other types of blood cells, from human embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells. Additionally, as most key transcription factors regulating early hematopoietic development have also been implicated in various types of leukemia, understanding their function during normal development could result in a better comprehension of their roles during abnormal hematopoiesis in leukemia. In this review, we discuss our current understanding of the molecular and cellular mechanisms of blood development from the earliest hematopoietic precursor, the hemangioblast, a precursor for both endothelial and hematopoietic cell lineages.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Sarah Lewis (Paterson Institute for Cancer Research) for critical reading of the manuscript. C.L., P.S., A.G.S, A.G., C.F., V.K., and G.L. are funded by Cancer Research UK.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cancer Research UK, Stem Cell Biology Group, Paterson Institute for Cancer Research, University of Manchester, Wilmslow Road, Manchester, M20 4BX, UK

    Christophe Lancrin, Patrycja Sroczynska, Cristina Ferreras & Georges Lacaud

  2. Cancer Research UK, Stem Cell Haematopoiesis Group, Paterson Institute for Cancer Research, University of Manchester, Wilmslow Road, Manchester, M20 4BX, UK

    Alicia G. Serrano, Arnaud Gandillet & Valerie Kouskoff

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  1. Christophe Lancrin
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  2. Patrycja Sroczynska
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Correspondence to Georges Lacaud.

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Lancrin, C., Sroczynska, P., Serrano, A.G. et al. Blood cell generation from the hemangioblast. J Mol Med 88, 167–172 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00109-009-0554-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00109-009-0554-0

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