Changes in the Cell Surface Markers During Normal Hematopoiesis: A Guide to Cell Isolation

Abstract

Hematopoiesis, the process of hematopoietic cell production, largely takes place in the bone marrow (BM) of humans. This process follows a stepwise manner in which hematopoietic stem cells give rise to progenitor cells and they develop the terminally differentiated cells along each lineage through a sequential series of stages. Consequently, constant changes would occur in the gene expressions leading to morphological or functional changes necessary for different stages of maturation. These changes provide us with guides to differentiate different subsets of hematopoietic hierarchy based on the cell surface antigen markers and will help us to isolate various cells from the hematopoietic hierarchy. Here we have a short review on the changes of these surface markers during different stages of development and we have applied an algorithmic approach for the isolation of all these cells based on our current understandings of this system.