Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2017 Jul;106(1):45-54.
doi: 10.1007/s12185-017-2262-9. Epub 2017 May 22.

Complexity of bone marrow hematopoietic stem cell niche

Noboru Asada  1   2 , Shoichiro Takeishi  3   4 , Paul S Frenette  5   6   7
Affiliations
Review

Complexity of bone marrow hematopoietic stem cell niche

Noboru Asada et al. Int J Hematol. 2017 Jul.

Abstract

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) that produce a variety of hematopoietic lineage cells throughout the life reside in specialized microenvironment called "niche" in the bone marrow (BM) where they are tightly regulated. With the recent advances in experimental technologies enabling the selective deletion of molecules, various types of cells in the BM have been proposed to contribute to HSC niche activity. Among these are stromal cells closely associated with the vasculature. In this review, we provide an overview of recent advances in HSC niche research, and focus on the studies describing the functional roles of perivascular cells for HSC maintenance and mobilization. Not only for physiologic state, we also discuss the recent evidences suggesting the importance of microenvironment for emergence of malignant hematopoietic diseases.

Keywords: Hematopoietic stem cell; Niche; Niche factor; Perivascular niche.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig.1
Fig.1
HSC niche players in BM. Various cell types have been identified as components of HSC niche. Emerging evidences highlight the stromal cells in the vicinity of bone marrow vasculature such as NG2-expressing peri-arteriolar cells and LepR-expressing peri-sinusoidal stromal cells. Mature blood cell types, macrophages, adipocytes, and megakaryocytes also contribute to HSC maintenance or mobilization.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Differential cytokine regulation in perivascular niches. CXCL12 secreted from peri-arteriolar NG2-expressing Nes-GFP+ stromal cells regulate HSC maintenance. CXCL12 derived from broadly distributed LepR+ peri-sinusoidal stromal cells controls mobilization of HSCs. Uniformly distributed LepR-expressing cells are the main source of SCF essential for HSC maintenance.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Two models of the interaction of leukemic cells and their microenvironment. While leukemic cells can induce changes in HSC niche (a), abnormalities in bone marrow microenvironment have a potential to initiate hematological malignancies (b). It is of note that these two models are not mutually exclusive. They can form a self-reinforcing loop, contributing to the disease progression. KO; knockout, OE; overexpression.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Schofield R. The relationship between the spleen colony-forming cell and the haemopoietic stem cell. Blood Cells. 1978;4(1–2):7–25. - PubMed
    1. Taichman RS, Emerson SG. Human osteoblasts support hematopoiesis through the production of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor. J Exp Med. 1994;179(5):1677–82. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Taichman RS, Reilly MJ, Emerson SG. Human osteoblasts support human hematopoietic progenitor cells in vitro bone marrow cultures. Blood. 1996;87(2):518–24. - PubMed
    1. Nilsson SK, Johnston HM, Coverdale JA. Spatial localization of transplanted hemopoietic stem cells: inferences for the localization of stem cell niches. Blood. 2001;97(8):2293–9. - PubMed
    1. Calvi LM, Adams GB, Weibrecht KW, Weber JM, Olson DP, Knight MC, et al. Osteoblastic cells regulate the haematopoietic stem cell niche. Nature. 2003;425(6960):841–6. - PubMed

MeSH terms