Left or right? Directions to stem cell engraftment

Mirjam E Belderbos1, Leonid Bystrykh1, Gerald de Haan1

  • 1Department of Stem Cell Biology and Ageing, European Research Institute for the Biology of Ageing, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Netherlands; Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology, Utrecht, Netherlands.

In this issue of JEM, Wu et al. (https://doi.org/10.1084/jem.20171341) use genetic barcoding of macaque hematopoietic stem cells to demonstrate that, after transplantation, HSCs are very asymmetrically distributed and uncover a thymus-independent pathway for mature T cell production in the bone marrow.