Human Peripheral Blood Derived Hematopoietic Stem Cell SciDoc Publishers | Open Access | Science Journals | Media Partners

Abstract Blood and the system that forms it, known as the hematopoietic system, consist of many cell types with specialized functions. Red blood cells (erythrocytes) carry oxygen to the tissues. Platelets (derived from megakaryocytes) help prevent bleeding. Granulocytes (neutrophils, basophils and eosinophils) and macrophages (collectively known as myeloid cells) fight infections from bacteria, fungi, and other parasites such as nematodes (ubiquitous small worms). Some of these cells are also involved in tissue and bone remodeling and removal of dead cells. B-lymphocytes produce antibodies, while T-lymphocytes can directly kill or isolate by inflammation cells recognized as foreign to the body, including many virus-infected cells and cancer cells. Many blood cells are short-lived and need to be replenished continuously; the average human requires approximately one hundred billion new hematopoietic cells each day. The continued production of these cells depends directly on the presence of Hematopoietic Stem Cells (HSCs), the ultimate, and only, source of all these. Peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) are rapidly becoming the primary rescue modality for autologous transplantation and are now actively being investigated in the allogeneic transplant setting. Many investigators and clinical researchers believe that PBSC are likely to replace bone marrow stem cells entirely, for use in clinical transplantation in the not too distant. Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are the blood cells that give rise to all the other blood cells. They give rise to the myeloid (monocytes and macrophages, neutrophils, basophils, eosinophils, erythrocytes, megakaryocytes/platelets, dendritic cells), and lymphoid lineages (T-cells, B-cells, NK-cells). The definition of hematopoietic stem cells has changed in the last two decades. The hematopoietic tissue contains cells with long-term and short-term regeneration capacities and committed multipotent, oligopotent, and unipotent progenitors