ES to Blood: Role of TPO

San Diego, California -

The role of the mpl ligand thrombopoietin (TPO) in upregulating production of megakaryocytes is established in the literature. Interestingly, it is also noted that TPO may have functions at inducing self-renewal of early hematopoeitic stem cell progenitors.

In a recent study, the ability of TPO, as well as the angiogenic cytokine vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), to induce hematopoietic differentiation from embryoid body, embryonic stem cells was assessed.

Ewa Carrier's group (Srivastava et al. Thrombopoietin Enhances Generation of CD 34+ Cells from Human Embryonic Stem Cells. Stem Cells. 2007 Mar 22) reported a synergistic activity between TPO and VEGF at stimulation of HSC numbers and function from ES cells. The ability to generate blood from ES cells is attractive not only from the potential in vivo therapeutic perspective, but also from the possibility to generate large amounts of blood for blood storage and emergency medicine use.