Blood and Lymphocyte

Lineages

Blood and
lymphocyte lineages.

The first pluripotential hematopoietic stem

cell is the CFU-M,L whose development
appears
to
be
dependent
on
the
transcription factor SCL. SCL may specify
the ventral mesoderm to a blood cell fate,
or it may enable the formation or
maintenance of the CFU-M,L cells (Porcher
et al. 1996; Robb et al. 1996).
The CFU-M,L give rise to the CFU-S (blood
cells) and the several lymphocytic stem cell
types.
The immediate progeny of the CFU-S can
produce only one type of cell in addition to
renewing itself.
The BFU-E (burst-forming unit, erythroid), for
instance, is a lineage-restricted stem cell
formed from the CFU-S, and it can form only
one cell type, the CFU-E (colony-forming unit,
erythroid), in addition to itself. That cell type
is the CFU-E , which is capable of responding
to the hormone erythropoietin to produce the
first recognizable differentiated member of

Summary of the development of the blood and lymph

cells and the paracrine factors

Blood and lymphocyte lineages.

Erythropoietin is a glycoprotein that rapidly induces the synthesis of the mRNA for
globin (Krantz and Goldwasser 1965).
It is produced predominantly in the kidney, and its synthesis is responsive to environmental conditions.
If the level of blood oxygen falls, erythropoietin production is increased, leading to the production of
more red blood cells.

As the proerythroblast matures, it becomes an erythroblast, synthesizing enormous

amounts of hemoglobin.
Eventually, the mammalian erythroblast expels its nucleus, becoming a reticulocyte.
Reticulocytes can no longer synthesize globin mRNA, but they can still translate existing messages into
globin.

The final stage of differentiation is the erythrocyte, or mature red blood cell. Here, no
division, RNA synthesis, or protein synthesis takes place. The DNA of the erythrocyte
condenses and makes no further messages.
Amphibians, fish, and birds retain the functionless nucleus; mammals extrude it from
the cell. The cell leaves the bone marrow and delivers oxygen to the body tissues.
Similarly, there are lineage-restricted stem cells that give rise to platelets, to

Hematopoietic growth
factors
Some hematopoietic growth factors:

IL-3 stimulate the division and maturation of the early stem cells,
thus increasing the numbers of all blood cell types.
Erythropoietin are specific for certain cell lineages only.

A cell's ability to respond to these factors is dependent upon

the presence of receptors for the factors on its surface.
*The number of these receptors is quite low. There are only about 700 receptors for
erythropoietin on a CFU-E,and most other progenitor cells have similar low numbers of
growth factor receptors.
**The exception is the receptor for macrophage colony-stimulating factor M-CSF, also
known as CSF-1 which can number up to 73,000 per cell on certain progenitor cells.