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Updated: Jun 10, 2026
Phenotypic Analysis and Isolation of Murine Hematopoietic Stem Cells and Lineage-committed Progenitors
Published on: July 8, 2012
Identification and in vivo analysis of murine hematopoietic stem cells
Serine Avagyan1, Yacine M Amrani, Hans-Willem Snoeck
1Department of Gene and Cell Medicine, Mount Sinai of School of Medicine, New York, USA.
Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) can self-renew and give rise to all the cells of the blood and the immune system. As they differentiate, HSCs progressively lose their self-renewal capacity and generate lineage-restricted multipotential progenitor cells that in turn give rise to mature cells. The development of rigorous quantitative in vivo assays for HSC activity combined with multicolor flow cytometry and high-speed sorting have resulted in the phenotypic definition of HSCs to virtual purity. Here, we describe the isolation and identification of HSCs by flow cytometry and the use of competitive repopulation to assess HSC number and function.
Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) can self-renew and give rise to all the cells of the blood and the immune system. As they differentiate, HSCs progressively lose their self-renewal capacity and generate lineage-restricted multipotential progenitor cells that in turn give rise to mature cells. The development of rigorous quantitative in vivo assays for HSC activity combined with multicolor flow cytometry and high-speed sorting have resulted in the phenotypic definition of HSCs to virtual purity. Here, we describe the isolation and identification of HSCs by flow cytometry and the use of competitive repopulation to assess HSC number and function.
