Submitted December 9, 2008
Accepted April 27, 2009
Surface antigen phenotypes of hematopoietic stem cells from embryos and murine embryonic stem cells
Shannon L. McKinney-Freeman, Olaia Naveiras, Frank Yates, Sabine Loewer, Marsha Philitas, Matthew Curran, Peter J. Park, and George Q. Daley*
Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Manton Center for Orphan Diseases, Stem Cell Transplantation Program, Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
Human Embryonic Stem Cell Core Facility, Hopital Paul Brousse, Villejuif, France
Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Cambridge, MA, United States
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Cambridge, MA, United States
Children's Hospital Informatics Program, Boston, MA, United States
* Corresponding author; email: george.daley{at}childrens.harvard.edu.
Surface antigens on Hematopoietic Stem Cells (HSC) enable prospective isolation and characterization. Here we compare the cell surface phenotype of hematopoietic repopulating cells from murine yolk sac, aorta-gonad-mesonephros, placenta, fetal liver and bone marrow with that of HSCs derived from the in vitro differentiation of murine Embryonic Stem Cells (ESC-HSC). Whereas c-Kit marks all HSC populations, CD41, CD45, CD34 and CD150 were developmentally regulated: the earliest embryonic HSCs express CD41 and CD34 and lack CD45 and CD150, while more mature HSCs lack CD41 and CD34 and express CD45 and CD150. ESC-HSC express CD41 and CD150, lack CD34, and are heterogeneous for CD45. Finally, although CD48 was absent from all in vivo HSC examined, ESC-HSC were heterogeneous for the expression of this molecule. This unique phenotype signifies a developmentally immature population of cells with features of both primitive and mature HSC. The prospective fractionation of ESC-HSC will facilitate studies of HSC maturation essential for normal functional engraftment in irradiated adults.
