BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Characterization of the different sites of fetal hematopoiesis during the second trimester of pregnancy can provide important information for the timing of in utero stem cell transplantation (SCT), as an experimental treatment for congenital hematologic disorders. DESIGN AND METHODS We analyzed the distribution of the different hematopoietic precursor cells in fetal ...

Cited2 (cAMP-responsive elementbinding protein [CBP]/p300-interacting transactivators with glutamic acid [E] and aspartic acid [D]-rich tail 2) is a newly identified transcriptional modulator. Knockout of the Cited2 gene results in embryonic lethality with embryos manifesting heart and neural tube defects. Cited2-/- fetal liver displayed significant reduction in the numbers of Lin(-)c-Kit+Sca-1...

Polycomb-group (PcG) proteins are essential regulators of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). In contrast to Bmi1, a component of Polycomb repressive complex 1 (PRC1), the role of PRC2 and its components in hematopoiesis remains elusive. Here we show that Ezh2, a core component of PRC2, is essential for fetal, but not adult, HSCs. Ezh2-deficient embryos died of anemia because of insufficient expan...

The platelet glycoprotein IIb (alpha(IIb); CD41) constitutes the alpha subunit of a highly expressed platelet surface integrin protein. We demonstrate that CD41 serves as the earliest marker of primitive erythroid progenitor cells in the embryonic day 7 (E7.0) yolk sac and high-level expression identifies essentially all E8.25 yolk sac definitive hematopoietic progenitors. Some definitive hemat...

stem cell-based therapies have recently opened up new horizons for treatment of various types of diseases including diabetes mellitus. however, long-term efficacy and safety of these novel modalities still remain a serious question. hereby, we aim to report the one-year follow-up results in the diabetic patients who underwent fetal liver-derived hematopoietic stem cell allotransplantation. fift...

increased fetal hemoglobin (hbf) in b-globin gene disorders ameliorates the clinical symptoms of the underlying disease. 5-azacytidine, butyrate and hydroxyurea, have been shown to activate g-globin gene expression. it has also been found that hematopoietic growth factors can influence expression of g-globin in erythroid cultures and in animal models. this study was designed to evaluate the in ...

Alcohol consumption has long been a global problem affecting human health, and has been found to influence both fetal and adult liver functions. However, how alcohol affects human liver development and liver progenitor cells remains largely unknown. Here, we used human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) as a model to examine the effects of alcohol, on multi-stage hepatic cells including hep...

Comparative measurements of different types of hematopoietic progenitors present in human fetal liver, cord blood, and adult marrow showed a large (up to 250-fold), stage-specific, but lineage-unrestricted, amplification of the colony-forming cell (CFC) compartment in the fetal liver, with a higher ratio of all types of CFC to long-term culture-initiating cells (LTC-IC) and a lower ratio of tot...

Self-renewal, replication, and differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are regulated by cytokines produced by niche cells in fetal liver and bone marrow. HSCs must overcome stresses induced by cytokine deprivation during normal development. In this study, we found that ubiquitin-specific peptidase 10 (USP10) is a crucial deubiquitinase for mouse hematopoiesis. All USP10 knockout (KO)...

Although the expression of Pitx2, a bicoid family homeodomain transcription factor, is highly regulated during hematopoiesis, its function during this process was not documented; we thus studied hematopoiesis in Pitx2-null mice. We found that Pitx2(-/-) embryos display hypoplastic livers with reduced numbers of hematopoietic cells, but these cells had normal hematopoietic potential, as evidence...