Scientists Revert Mature Blood Cells into Blood-Forming Stem Cells

April 28, 2014

(Harvard Stem Cell Institute) – Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital have reprogrammed mature blood cells from mice into blood-forming hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) using a cocktail of eight genetic switches called transcription factors. The reprogrammed cells, which the researchers have dubbed induced HSCs (iHSCs), have the functional hallmarks of HSCs, are able to self-renew like HSCs, and can give rise to all of the cellular components of the blood like HSCs.