Haemopoietic stem cells during development of mouse embryo

Haemopoiesis in mammals takes place in yolk-sac and in mouse it can be detected on the 7th day of gestation. Erythropoietin (EPO) responsive cells can be detected from 7th day onwards. However, the cells committed to the myeloid lineage which can respond to the haemopoietic growth factor (viz. granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor; GM-CSF) can be demonstrated only on 10th day of gestation. At the same time, the 12-day spleen colony forming cells i.e. the late colony forming unit spleen (CFU-s) which are multipotent stem cells can also be detected. Data suggest that the stem cells seen in the embryo from 7-10 days of gestation may be a primitive population confined only to the yolk-sac. Liver haemopoiesis which begins in the liver of 13-day embryos is due to primitive haemopoietic pluripotent stem cells, arising de novo in the embryo and not in the yolk-sac, since no primitive pluripotent stem cells capable of repopulating lethally irradiated bone-marrow can be detected in the yolk-sac.