Hematopoietic stem cells: to be or Notch to be

Notch is a well-conserved signaling pathway and its function in cell fate determination is crucial in embryonic development and in the maintenance of tissue homeostasis during adult life. Notch activation depends on cell-cell interactions that are essential for the generation of cell diversity from...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Blood 2012-04, Vol.119 (14), p.3226-3235
Main Authors: Bigas, Anna, Espinosa, Lluis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Cell Differentiation
Embryonic Development
Hematologic and hematopoietic diseases
Hematopoiesis - physiology
Hematopoietic Stem Cells - cytology
Hematopoietic Stem Cells - metabolism
Humans
Ligands
Medical sciences
Receptors, Notch - metabolism
Signal Transduction
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Notch is a well-conserved signaling pathway and its function in cell fate determination is crucial in embryonic development and in the maintenance of tissue homeostasis during adult life. Notch activation depends on cell-cell interactions that are essential for the generation of cell diversity from initially equivalent cell populations. In the adult hematopoiesis, Notch is undoubtedly a very efficient promoter of T-cell differentiation, and this has masked for a long time the effects of Notch on other blood lineages, which are gradually being identified. However, the adult hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) remains mostly refractory to Notch intervention in experimental systems. In contrast, Notch is essential for the generation of the HSCs, which takes place during embryonic development. This review summarizes the knowledge accumulated in recent years regarding the role of the Notch pathway in the different stages of HSC ontology from embryonic life to fetal and adult bone marrow stem cells. In addition, we briefly examine other systems where Notch regulates specific stem cell capacities, in an attempt to understand how Notch functions in stem cell biology.
ISSN:0006-4971
1528-0020
DOI:10.1182/blood-2011-10-355826