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in the bone marrow
Scientists believe they have come one step closer to creating hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) that are just like the real thing.
“Our work focuses on finding a way to generate a supply of these life-saving hematopoietic stem cells in the lab so that they are a perfect match to the patient in need of a transplant,” said Hanna Mikkola, MD, PhD, of the University of California, Los Angeles.
“One big challenge is that when we try to create hematopoietic stem cells from pluripotent stem cells in the lab, they don’t acquire the same abilities of the real hematopoietic stem cells found in the body.”
Dr Mikkola and her colleagues described their attempts to overcome this challenge in Nature Cell Biology.
The researchers tried to create HSCs from pluripotent stem cells, but when they compared the lab-created cells to HSCs found in the body, they found that HOXA genes weren’t activated in the lab-created cells.
The team also discovered that HOXA genes help HSCs maintain their stem-cell attributes, such as the ability to self-renew.
“Without the ability to self-renew, hematopoietic stem cells cannot be used for transplantation therapies,” said Vincenzo Calvanese, PhD, an assistant project scientist in Dr Mikkola’s lab.
“Our findings show that the activation of HOXA genes can be used as a marker for hematopoietic stem cells that have acquired the capacity to renew themselves.”
The researchers’ next challenge was to pinpoint the naturally occurring process that activates HOXA genes so they could try to replicate the process in the lab.
They found that mimicking the effects of retinoic acid acts like a switch that turns on the HOXA genes during HSC development.
“Inducing retinoic acid activity at a very specific time in cell development makes our lab-created cells more similar to the real hematopoietic stem cells found in the body,” said Diana Dou, a graduate student in Dr Mikkola’s lab.
“This is an important step forward as we work to develop hematopoietic stem cells for transplantation therapies for life-threatening blood diseases.”
The researchers’ next step will be to refine the process they’ve developed in order to produce lab-created HSCs that have—and maintain—all the functions of human HSCs. 
in the bone marrow
Scientists believe they have come one step closer to creating hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) that are just like the real thing.
“Our work focuses on finding a way to generate a supply of these life-saving hematopoietic stem cells in the lab so that they are a perfect match to the patient in need of a transplant,” said Hanna Mikkola, MD, PhD, of the University of California, Los Angeles.
“One big challenge is that when we try to create hematopoietic stem cells from pluripotent stem cells in the lab, they don’t acquire the same abilities of the real hematopoietic stem cells found in the body.”
Dr Mikkola and her colleagues described their attempts to overcome this challenge in Nature Cell Biology.
The researchers tried to create HSCs from pluripotent stem cells, but when they compared the lab-created cells to HSCs found in the body, they found that HOXA genes weren’t activated in the lab-created cells.
The team also discovered that HOXA genes help HSCs maintain their stem-cell attributes, such as the ability to self-renew.
“Without the ability to self-renew, hematopoietic stem cells cannot be used for transplantation therapies,” said Vincenzo Calvanese, PhD, an assistant project scientist in Dr Mikkola’s lab.
“Our findings show that the activation of HOXA genes can be used as a marker for hematopoietic stem cells that have acquired the capacity to renew themselves.”
The researchers’ next challenge was to pinpoint the naturally occurring process that activates HOXA genes so they could try to replicate the process in the lab.
They found that mimicking the effects of retinoic acid acts like a switch that turns on the HOXA genes during HSC development.
“Inducing retinoic acid activity at a very specific time in cell development makes our lab-created cells more similar to the real hematopoietic stem cells found in the body,” said Diana Dou, a graduate student in Dr Mikkola’s lab.
“This is an important step forward as we work to develop hematopoietic stem cells for transplantation therapies for life-threatening blood diseases.”
The researchers’ next step will be to refine the process they’ve developed in order to produce lab-created HSCs that have—and maintain—all the functions of human HSCs.
in the bone marrow
Scientists believe they have come one step closer to creating hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) that are just like the real thing.
“Our work focuses on finding a way to generate a supply of these life-saving hematopoietic stem cells in the lab so that they are a perfect match to the patient in need of a transplant,” said Hanna Mikkola, MD, PhD, of the University of California, Los Angeles.
“One big challenge is that when we try to create hematopoietic stem cells from pluripotent stem cells in the lab, they don’t acquire the same abilities of the real hematopoietic stem cells found in the body.”
Dr Mikkola and her colleagues described their attempts to overcome this challenge in Nature Cell Biology.
The researchers tried to create HSCs from pluripotent stem cells, but when they compared the lab-created cells to HSCs found in the body, they found that HOXA genes weren’t activated in the lab-created cells.
The team also discovered that HOXA genes help HSCs maintain their stem-cell attributes, such as the ability to self-renew.
“Without the ability to self-renew, hematopoietic stem cells cannot be used for transplantation therapies,” said Vincenzo Calvanese, PhD, an assistant project scientist in Dr Mikkola’s lab.
“Our findings show that the activation of HOXA genes can be used as a marker for hematopoietic stem cells that have acquired the capacity to renew themselves.”
The researchers’ next challenge was to pinpoint the naturally occurring process that activates HOXA genes so they could try to replicate the process in the lab.
They found that mimicking the effects of retinoic acid acts like a switch that turns on the HOXA genes during HSC development.
“Inducing retinoic acid activity at a very specific time in cell development makes our lab-created cells more similar to the real hematopoietic stem cells found in the body,” said Diana Dou, a graduate student in Dr Mikkola’s lab.
“This is an important step forward as we work to develop hematopoietic stem cells for transplantation therapies for life-threatening blood diseases.”
The researchers’ next step will be to refine the process they’ve developed in order to produce lab-created HSCs that have—and maintain—all the functions of human HSCs.