The human body produces about 10 billion white blood cells every day. These cells flow through the body, attacking viruses, bacteria, foreign cells, and other potentially dangerous invaders which may harm your health.
Scientists in the United States have just made an important discovery about how blood stem cells produce white blood cells. This discovery may help them develop treatments which temporarily boost the production of white blood cells, helping the body fight off many types of illnesses.
The discovery was made by University of Southern California, USC PhD student Lisa Nguyen and colleagues. Nguyen and her team tracked individual blood stem cells in the bone marrow of mice using unique pieces of genetic code. As blood cells were produced, each stem cell would pass its unique code onto the cells it created.
The researchers then performed bone marrow transplants in mice to determine how the well the marked stem cells were contributing. They gave the mice a combination of deficient blood stem cells which could not produce B cells and/or T cells (different types of immune cells) plus normal blood stem cells.
They found that the normal blood stem cells increased their production of white blood cells to compensate for the lack of production by the deficient stem cells. The researchers realised that stem cells could detect if there was a shortage in a specific type of immune system cell and ramp up production.
A few specific blood stem cells were working overtime to ensure the body had the immune cells it required. The researchers then transplanted these overactive cells into other mice and discovered that they continued to be very productive. The found that the active stem cells had a change in their gene activity which caused them to worker harder.
Scientists hope to identify the circumstances that make stem cells operate this way. If they do, they may be able to harness this ability to treat many conditions including blood disorders and cancer.
Source: Blood stem cells balance the immune system by teamwork
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