The bone marrow microenvironment as niche retreats for hematopoietic and leukemic stem cells.
Leukemia poses a serious challenge to current therapeutic strategies. This has been attributed to leukemia stem cells (LSCs), which occupy endosteal and sinusoidal niches in the bone marrow similar to those of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). The signals from these niches provide a viable setting for the maintenance, survival, and fate specifications of these stem cells. Advancements in genetic engineering and microscopy have enabled us to critically deconstruct and analyze the anatomic and functional characteristics of these niches to reveal a wealth of new knowledge in HSC biology, which is quite ahead of LSC biology. In this paper, we examine the present understanding of the regulatory mechanisms governing HSC niches, with the goals of providing a framework for understanding the mechanisms of LSC regulation and suggesting future strategies for their elimination.
Department of Immunology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Unit 0902, Houston, TX 77030, USA ; Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, 6767 Bertner Avenue, 3rd Floor, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
Felix
F
Nwajei
Marina
M
Konopleva