Stem cell heterogeneity: implications for aging and regenerative medicine

For decades, hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) were thought to be a homogeneous population of cells with flexible behavior. Now a new picture has emerged: The HSC compartment consists of several subpopulations of HSCs each with distinct, preprogrammed differentiation and proliferation behaviors. These programs are epigenetically fixed and are stably bequeathed to all daughter HSCs on self-renewal. HSCs within each subset are remarkably similar in their self- renewal and differentiation behaviors, to the point where their life span can be predicted with mathematical certainty. Three subsets can be distinguished when HSCs are classified by their differentiation capacity: myeloid-biased, balanced, and lymphoid-biased HSCs. The relative number of the HSC subsets is developmentally regulated. Lymphoid-biased HSCs are found predominantly early in the life of an organism, whereas myeloid-biased HSCs accumulate in aged mice and humans. Thus, the discovery of distinct subpopulations of HSCs has led to a new understanding of HCS aging. This finding has implications for other aspects of HSC biology and applications in re-generative medicine. The possibility that other adult tissue stem cells show similar heterogeneity and mechanisms of aging is discussed.