Elsevier

Experimental Hematology

Volume 32, Issue 11, November 2004, Pages 1040-1050
Experimental Hematology

General Hematopoiesis
Estimating human hematopoietic stem cell kinetics using granulocyte telomere lengths

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exphem.2004.07.023Get rights and content
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Objective

To study in vivo behavior of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC).

Materials and Methods

Behavior of HSC is difficult to study because one cannot observe and track cells within the marrow microenvironment. Therefore, information must be obtained from indirect means, such as competitive repopulation assays or surrogate studies, such as observations of telomere shortening in granulocytes. In this article, we use granulocyte telomere length data and a novel approach, stochastic simulation, to derive replication rates of HSC. The approach is first applied to cats and then to humans.

Results

Human HSC replicate infrequently, on average once per 45 weeks (range: once per 23 to once per 67 weeks).

Conclusions

This rate is substantially slower than the average replication rates estimated for murine (once per 2.5 weeks) and feline (once per 8.3–10 weeks) HSC in vivo.

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