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Updated: Oct 11, 2026
Pan-myeloid Differentiation of Human Cord Blood Derived CD34+ Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells
Published on: August 9, 2019
Immunophenotypic and functional characterization of CD33(+)CD34(+) cells in human cord blood of preterm neonates
1Departments of Pediatrics, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
Objective:
To characterize CD33(+)CD34(+) cells, a major population in human cord blood (CB) CD34(+) cells of preterm neonates.
Materials:
The proportion of CD33(+) cells was analyzed on CB CD34(+) cells from preterm and full-term neonates. CD33(+)CD34(+) cells were purified by cell sorting and analyzed on their clonogenic activity, proliferative activity in short-time liquid suspension culture, and GATA-2 mRNA expression by RT-PCR and Southern blot.
Results:
The absolute numbers and proportion of CD34(+) cells in mononuclear cells inversely correlated with gestational age. CD33 was expressed on a majority of CB CD34(+) cells of preterm neonates but on only a minor population of them in full-term neonates. In addition, CD33 was dominantly expressed on CD38(-)CD34(+) cells or CD117(low)CD34(+) cells in CB of preterm neonates. CD33(+)CD34(+) cells of preterm cord blood had high proliferative and reproducible potentials compared with CD33(-)CD34(+) cells. CD33(+)CD34(+) cells as well as CD33(-)CD34(+) cells from preterm CB highly expressed GATA-2, in contrast to those from BM.
Conclusions:
These results suggest that CD33(+)CD34(+) cells, which are a major population in CB CD34(+) cells of preterm neonates, do not simply represent relatively mature myeloid lineage hematopoietic progenitor cells as those in adult BM CD34(+) cells, and may contain hematopoietic stem cells or primitive progenitor cells as in fetal liver.
