A collaborative research team consisting of Assistant Professor Satoshi Yamazaki and Professor Hiromitsu Nakauchi (also serving as Stanford University) of the Institute of Medical Science, the University of Tokyo, and James Y. Chen, Researcher Masanori Miyanishi, and Professor Irving Weissman of Stanford University has created a transparent bone marrow. We have succeeded in visualizing the location of hematopoietic stem cells that make all blood cells in the body.It is expected that the development of new therapeutic methods using hematopoietic stem cells, such as bone marrow transplantation performed for leukemia patients, will progress.
The research team identified a gene called "Hoxb5" that is specifically expressed in hematopoietic stem cells.In addition, we have succeeded in producing a mouse in which a fluorescent protein that glows red is specifically expressed in hematopoietic stem cells by genome editing technology.As a result of separating cells from the bone marrow of the mouse and transplanting it into a mouse irradiated with radiation divided by fluorescence intensity, it was found that only hematopoietic stem cells that supply all blood cells for a long period of time show strong fluorescence.
In addition, the research team has succeeded in clearing the bone marrow using the technology developed by the Japanese research team, and the latest sheet laser microscope 3D imaging technology enables long-term reconstruction of the bone marrow around the blood vessels in the bone marrow. It was also clarified that hematopoietic stem cells are localized.
It is expected that the results of this study will advance the understanding of the dynamics of hematopoietic stem cells, accelerate the development of new therapeutic methods using hematopoietic stem cells such as bone marrow transplantation, and lead to the development of safe and new therapeutic methods for blood diseases.It will also be a great finding in research on differentiating and inducing blood cells from pluripotent stem cells.
