Faiyaz Notta及其同事分离出罕见且有自我复制能力的造血干细胞，这些细胞可在人的一生中不断地补给成熟的血细胞。
他们的研究工作可帮助科学家们更好地理解这些干细胞的生物学特性，并控制它们朝着器官移植等治疗的方向分化。
分离这些干细胞一直很困难，因为它们很难与那些仅能短期内分化成血细胞的其它细胞区分开来。 研究人员发现了一个分子标记，该标记看来是长期补充血细胞的干细胞所特有的；研究人员能够将这些细胞成功地移植到小鼠体内。
这些活跃的造血干细胞不一定都是永久分化的
生物探索推荐英文摘要：
Isolation of Single Human Hematopoietic Stem Cells Capable of Long-Term Multilineage Engraftment
Abstract： Lifelong blood cell production is dependent on rare hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) to perpetually replenish mature cells via a series of lineage-restricted intermediates. Investigating the molecular state of HSCs is contingent on the ability to purify HSCs away from transiently engrafting cells. We demonstrated that human HSCs remain infrequent, using current purification strategies based on Thy1 (CD90) expression. By tracking the expression of several adhesion molecules in HSC-enriched subsets, we revealed CD49f as a specific HSC marker. Single CD49f+ cells were highly efficient in generating long-term multilineage grafts, and the loss of CD49f expression identified transiently engrafting multipotent progenitors (MPPs). The demarcation of human HSCs and MPPs will enable the investigation of the molecular determinants of HSCs, with a goal of developing stem cell–based therapeutics.
