{"id":9607,"date":"2017-04-06T18:19:14","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T16:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.embl.de\/?p=9607"},"modified":"2024-03-25T10:03:56","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T09:03:56","slug":"1703-blood-stem-cell-differentiation-continuous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1703-blood-stem-cell-differentiation-continuous\/","title":{"rendered":"Blood stem cell differentiation is continuous"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Every day, your body has to generate up to one trillion new blood cells, more if you suffer from an infection or severe bleeding. Ultimately, all of these cells derive from the adult haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in your bone marrow. For decades, the textbook view on this process has been that HSCs differentiate through a \u2018tree\u2019 of defined progenitor stages before finally becoming a specialised cell like a red blood cell or T cell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.de\/research\/units\/genome_biology\/steinmetz\/\">Lars Steinmetz\u2019s lab <\/a>at EMBL, in collaboration with colleagues at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dkfz.de\/en\/stammzellen-und-krebs\/index.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">German Cancer Research Centre<\/a> (DKFZ), have discovered that HSC differentiation is in fact a continuum: stem cells are locked on to the path to a specific cell type without passing through defined progenitor stages. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.de\/research\/units\/genome_biology\/steinmetz\/members\/index.php?s_personId=CP-60016232\">Lars Velten<\/a>, who carried out the research at EMBL, describes the work, <a href=\"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1038\/ncb3493\">which is featured on the cover of <em>Nature Cell Biology <\/em>this month<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What did you find?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We tried to find out how adult human HSCs differentiate into various mature cell types in the blood. Until now this question has mainly been studied by looking at whole populations of cells, which is what led to the \u2018tree\u2019 model in the textbooks. We set out to analyse this process at the level of single cells, using a technology we invented. This technology enables us to simultaneously study a cell\u2019s function and its genome-wide gene expression. We were able to pinpoint exactly when HSCs commit to individual lineages. We found that this happens earlier than people thought, and that this differentiation is a gradual march towards mature cell types: we found no evidence that intermediate cell types exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why does it matter? <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Many cancers involve cells that derive from HSCs, so it is important to understand where the healthy versions of these cells originate. For example, myeloid leukaemias \u2013 which mainly affect adults \u2013 were thought to originate from one of these intermediate stages that we now show don\u2019t exist. This begs the question of how these leukaemias really arise. To answer this, we\u2019re planning to analyse myeloid leukaemias with the same single-cell methods we used in this study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More broadly speaking, there\u2019s been an assumption that other stem cells also differentiate through a \u2018tree\u2019-like process. Our work highlights the importance of thinking about development as a continuous process, and underscores the need for a single cell view on cellular decision-making processes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Study by EMBL and DKFZ researchers means origins of myeloid leukaemias may need rethinking<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":9609,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17591],"tags":[64,496,43,118],"embl_taxonomy":[],"class_list":["post-9607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","category-science-technology","tag-cell-biology","tag-genome-biology","tag-heidelberg","tag-stem-cell"],"acf":{"article_intro":"<p>Study by EMBL and DKFZ researchers means origins of myeloid leukaemias may need rethinking<\/p>\n","related_links":[{"link_description":"","link_url":""}],"article_sources":[{"source_description":"<p>Velten, L. et al, (2017)\u00a0<em>Nat. Cell Biol.<\/em>,\u00a0<strong>19<\/strong>, 271\u2013281<\/p>\n","source_link_url":"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1038\/ncb3493"}],"vf_locked":false,"featured":false,"color":"#007B53","show_featured_image":false,"field_target_display":"embl","source_article":false,"in_this_article":false,"press_contact":"None"},"embl_taxonomy_terms":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Blood stem cell differentiation is continuous | EMBL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Study by EMBL and DKFZ researchers means origins of myeloid leukaemias may need rethinking\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1703-blood-stem-cell-differentiation-continuous\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blood stem cell differentiation is continuous | EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Study by EMBL and DKFZ researchers means origins of myeloid leukaemias may need rethinking\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1703-blood-stem-cell-differentiation-continuous\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-06T16:19:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-25T09:03:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/steinmetz-ib.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"425\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Annika Duda\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Annika Duda\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1703-blood-stem-cell-differentiation-continuous\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1703-blood-stem-cell-differentiation-continuous\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Annika Duda\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/b1c978a24ebee747bed115f4ff661b78\"},\"headline\":\"Blood stem cell differentiation is continuous\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-06T16:19:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-25T09:03:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1703-blood-stem-cell-differentiation-continuous\/\"},\"wordCount\":401,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1703-blood-stem-cell-differentiation-continuous\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/steinmetz-ib.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"cell biology\",\"genome biology\",\"heidelberg\",\"stem cell\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Science\",\"Science &amp; 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