Dresden 2020 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 23: Focus: Physics of Stem Cells
BP 23.8: Talk
Wednesday, March 18, 2020, 12:30–12:45, ZEU 250
Reversibility and heterogeneity as building principles of hematopoietic stem cell organization — •Ingmar Glauche1 and Ingo Roeder1,2 — 1Institute for Medical Informatics and Biometry, Carl Gustav Carus Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany — 2National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), Partner Site Dresden, Germany
Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) retain the ability to maintain their own population while at the same time generate all types of the peripheral blood. In contrast to other somatic stem cells, HSCs undergo periods of extended quiescence, in which they do not proliferate but retain their stemness.
We have been developing conceptual and mathematical models of HSC organization for almost two decades. Central to all these models is the conceptual idea that stem cells can reversibly change between different states of activity, thereby introducing an intrinsic level of heterogeneity. Even the simplest assumption, that HSCs can either be in a proliferative state or a state of extended quiescence, proved sufficient to explain the wide range of phenomena observed in hematopoietic stem cell biology. We successfully apply to this concept to competitive transplantation assays in mouse, to the analysis of label dilution data and to stem cell aging. Most importantly, this concept was also instrumental to describe and predict pathogenesis and treatment in acute and chronic leukemias. We conclude that stemness is not a static feature, but should be understood as an emergent and reversible property resulting from the interaction of cells with their current environment.