Developments in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Expansion and Gene Editing Technologies

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are rare cells, which housed in the adult bone marrow. They maintain all types of differentiated blood cells throughout life. Due to limited availability of HSCs for transplantation, treatment of various inherited bone marrow disorders and anemia requires the development of HSC expansion and gene editing technologies. To this end, various studies addressed the use of cytokines and growth factors for HSC expansion. Major hurdle with these studies was found to be spontaneous differentiation of HSCs into different lineages during ex vivo procedure. In addition, cost efficient approaches were needed. Thus, studies move on to the identification of small molecules and development of RNA interference technologies with potential to enhance cell cycle progression and block inhibitory signaling mechanisms during ex vivo HSC expansion as well as single cell expansion of HSCs following gene editing studies. This review aims to highlight developments in hematopoietic stem cells expansion and gene editing technologies.