Regulation of hematopoietic stem cell aging in vivo by a distinct genetic element.

Until recently, stem cells were thought to be endowed with unlimited self-renewal capacity and, thus, assumed exempt from aging. But accumulating evidence over the past decade compellingly argues that a measurable and progressive replicative impairment in the hematopoietic, intestinal, and muscle stem cell activity exists from adulthood to old age, resulting in a decline in stem cell function and rendering stem cell aging as the possible link between cellular aging and organismal aging. By using a previously uncharacterized congenic animal model to study genetic regulation of hematopoietic stem cell aging, we have demonstrated definitively that a locus on murine chromosome 2 regulates hematopoietic stem cell aging. In addition to demonstrating that hematopoietic stem cell aging is regulated by a distinct genetic element, experimental evidence links the response of hematopoietic stem cells to DNA double-strand breaks to cellular aging, suggesting DNA integrity influences stem cell aging.

Citation

Hartmut Geiger, Gabriela Rennebeck, Gary Van Zant. Regulation of hematopoietic stem cell aging in vivo by a distinct genetic element. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2005 Apr 5;102(14):5102-7

Mesh Tags

PMID: 15788535

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