Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) reside primarily in the bone marrow (BM) and represent the top of a tightly controlled differentiation cascade, which ensures lifelong generation of functional blood cells. Hematopoiesis is regulated by intracellular signaling cascades and extracellular cues, and accumulation of mutations in the HSC or progenitor pool can lead to the development of hematologic diseases such as leukemia. In recent years, cutting-edge technologies have been developed that can be used to study the mechanisms governing normal and malignant hematopoiesis. These include novel tools for Omics analysis of those scarce cell types on a transcriptional, epigenetic, translational, proteomic and metabolomic level. In addition, barcoding techniques have been developed that allow tracing of cell fate and differentiation kinetics in vitro and in vivo. Several imaging technologies have been established to study the localization of HSPCs in the BM and to tackle HSPC-niche cell interactions. Recently, spatial-transcriptomic profiling and CRISPR-based approaches have extended the existing pool of protocols to facilitate the study of hematopoietic cell subsets. This collection provides an overview of state-of-the-art technologies to study hematopoiesis.
Comprehensive optimization approach for a LC-MS-based targeted metabolomics on rare, FACS-purified cell types
Jörg Büscher*1,
Manuel Stecher1,
Konrad Schuldes1,
Tim Lämmermann1,
Michael Mitterer1,
Sebastian Hobitz1,
Angelika Rambold1,
Katharina Schönberger1,
Nina Cabezas Wallscheid1
1Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics, Freiburg, Germany