It is fascinating that every day throughout the life of an adult organism billions of blood cells are formed, live their lifespan and then die at different times depending on which cell type they are. The three main different kind of blood cells, erythrocytes, leukocytes and platelets originate from a common hematopoietic stem cells and more differentiated lineage-specific progenitors. Stem cells have the ability to self renew or to commit toward differentiation. The process of hematopoiesis is tightly regulated and cellular, molecular, biochemical factors contribute to orchestrate blood cell homeostasis. This equilibrium sometimes can brake up and blood diseases occur. In particular, leukemias, lympomas and multiple myeloma are malignant tumors that arise from blood cells at different stages of differentiation, from the very early up to terminal ones. It is thus critical to study normal blood development and gain insights into the mechanisms regulating stem cell self renewal and differentiation, lineage choice decision, proliferation and cell death.
Hemopoietic stem cells (HSC) are critical for a proper blood cell production. Their stemness properties are regulated by complex mechanisms, involving transcription factors, signaling cascades, external stimuli, microenvironemntal niches. Numerous molecules have been shown to control HSC biology a well as cellular properties, such as stress-managing systems and metabolism. Understanding HSC biology and hematopoiesis has important reflections on clinical issues, such as stem cell transplantation, chemotherapy, regenerative medicine. Blood diseases like leukemias and myelodysplastic syndromes are believed to be clonal disorders of HSC.
Our laboratory is investigating the role of protein kinases in hematopoiesis by making use of different experimental approaches, like cell biology, molecular biology, genetics, knockout mouse models.
The figure shows a normal bone marrow section in which bone trabeculae are filled by hematopoietic cells, adipocytes, stromal cells and blood vessels.
