Distinct routes of lineage development reshape the human blood hierarchy across ontogeny

In a classical view of hematopoiesis, the various blood cell lineages arise via a hierarchical scheme starting with multipotent stem cells that become increasingly restricted in their differentiation potential through oligopotent and then unipotent progenitors. We developed a cell-sorting scheme to resolve myeloid (My), erythroid (Er), and megakaryocytic (Mk) fates from single CD34(+) cells and then mapped the progenitor hierarchy across human development. Fetal liver contained large numbers of distinct oligopotent progenitors with intermingled My, Er, and Mk fates. However, few oligopotent progenitor intermediates were present in the adult bone marrow. Instead, only two progenitor classes predominate,…

• W
  Wellcome
• OI
  Ontario Institute for Cancer Research
• AA
  Aplastic Anemia and Myelodysplasia Association of Canada
• OG
  Ontario Genomics Institute
• CC
  Canadian Cancer Society
• TF
  Terry Fox Foundation
• OM
  Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science
• HF
  Hospital for Sick Children
• CI
  Canadian Institutes of Health Research