Characterization of putative regulators of hematopoietic cell physiology

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

All blood cells are derived from a unique type of cells; the hematopoietic stem cells. When a stem cell divides in two daughter cells, one of the daughter cell will persist as a stem cell and the other will follow a path of differentiation to become red or white blood cells or platelets. While differentiated cells are usually short-lived, stem cells are long-lived and persist for the entire lifespan of the organism and insure the constant renewal of blood cells. Likewise, T lymphocytes are long-lived white blood cells that protect the organism against infections. This is especially true for memory T cells that "remember" past infections and can mount an efficient immune response if the organism is confronted to the same infections years or decades later. The mechanisms that control the long life span of stem cell and T-lymphocytes are still unknown, but appear to operate through the expression of the same set of genes. We have identified several genes that could be related to the maintenance of stem cells and T-lymphocytes. This project aims at characterizing the function of one of these genes, pou6f1. In the blood system, alterations in the persistence of stem cells or T-lymphocytes can have serious consequences on blood cell renewal and immunity. Moreover, the regulation of cell fates is a central question in biology and our work could be relevant to the functioning of other cell types, outside of the blood system.