Dendritic cells (DCs), originally discovered in 1973 by Ralph M. Steinman and Zanvil A. Cohn and named after their distinct stellate morphology, are important regulators of immune responses. Specialized in antigen acquisition, processing, and presentation, the hallmark of DCs is…
Aging Increase in life expectancy has resulted in a major demographic global shift toward an elderly population. As a consequence, the prevalence of a multitude of age-associated diseases has increased gradually during the last decades, resulting in an increased number…
Core Apoptosis Pathways Apoptosis is a biochemically well-defined programmed cell death that is essential for normal development and cellular homeostasis; dysregulation of apoptosis is involved in several diseases. The classical morphological features of apoptosis include cell shrinkage, membrane blebbing, nuclear…
The Cell Division Cycle The mammalian cell cycle is divided into four phases: mitosis (M), deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) synthesis (S), and the gap phases G1 and G2 ( Fig. 17.1 ). Mitosis is recognized when cells visibly undergo cell division…
Introduction Hallmarks of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell (HSPC) function include their dynamic metabolism, active bi-directional migration (bone marrow [BM] homing, egress, recruitment, and mobilization to the blood), durable multilineage BM and blood repopulation potential, self-renewal and chemotherapy resistance. Hematopoietic…
Cell adhesion is essential for the development and maintenance of multicellular organisms. Cell-to-cell and cell-to-matrix adhesion provide a mechanism for intercellular communication and to define the three-dimensional architecture of organs. The regulated nature of cell adhesion is particularly evident in…
Evolution of the Niche Concept In 1868, Ernest Neumann first suggested that blood cells are being replenished throughout postnatal life, and this proposal led to the attempts to localize the place of hematopoiesis. His hypothesis that blood cell production takes…
Cell-Of-Origin Studies in Hematologic Malignancies One of the prevailing models of cancer development proposes that a cancer is initiated and maintained through the function of CSCs, which represent a rare population of cells within a cancer that have an indefinite…
The mammalian immune system has evolved to mount multifaceted molecular and cellular microbicidal responses tailored and custom-adapted to eliminate an endless variety of infectious agents and, at the same time, remain tolerant to self-antigens. Accomplishing these tasks requires continuous tightly…
Introduction Hematopoiesis is regulated by cytokine-cell and cell-cell interactions. Cytokines are polypeptides secreted by many cell types either constitutively or after induction and are usually classified based on primary structures associated with their receptor extracellular domains. They regulate a large…