Opening-Up the Stem Cell Niche – Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation without Irradiation

July 14, 2014

(Nanowerk) – Now a group of scientists from Dresden led by stem cell researcher Prof. Claudia Waskow (Technische Universität Dresden) was able to generate a mouse model that supports the transplantation of human blood stem cells despite the species barrier and without the need for irradiation. They used a mutation of the Kit receptor in the mouse stem cells to facilitate the engraftment of human cells. In the new model human blood stem cells can expand and differentiate into all cell types of the blood without any additional treatment. Even cells of the innate immune system that can normally not be found in “humanized” mice were efficiently generated in this mouse.