Elisa Gomez Perdiguero The mysteries of embryonic blood stem cells

Hematopoiesis, a fundamental mechanism of our body

Hematopoiesis is the process by which our body produces the cells that make up our blood: red blood cells, which transport oxygen, and white blood cells, which defend our body against external agents such as viruses and bacteria. In adults, this process takes place in a reservoir of special cells called hematopoietic stem cells. Found in the bone marrow, they are capable of multiplying ad infinitum and giving rise to numerous types of cells, adapting to different situations, such as infection or blood loss.

This process is more complex during embryonic development. Hematopoietic stem cells are first generated in the dorsal aorta during a short window of time (48 hours), they then colonize the liver where they multiply up to 40 times their initial number, finally reaching the bone marrow around birth. What's more, although these cells are fully functional, they appear to behave differently from adult hematopoietic stem cells.

Other sources of blood and immune cells

Previous work by Elisa Gomez Perdiguero has shown that, in addition to fetal hematopoietic stem cells, there are other sources of blood and immune cells, also known as embryonic transitional progenitors. These cells are even thought to be the main producers of red and white blood cells during fetal life. Although their existence has been confirmed, their precise behavior during development and their consequences on adult life remain to be elucidated.

Is this challenge that Elisa Gomez Perdiguero and her team are tackling from an innovative angle, thanks to their expertise in cell fate modelling, tissue repair and single-cell technologies.

Understanding the consequences of fetal hematopoiesis disruption

Impulscience^® will enable Elisa Gomez Perdiguero's team to trace the fate of embryonic progenitors and their distribution in the body. This first step will provide a better understanding of how these cells orchestrate the establishment of the immune system during development.

Researchers will then be able to determine whether disruption of this process during fetal life has repercussions after birth. For the first time, they will test the consequences of alterations in these progenitors on their immediate and long-term function in certain pediatric diseases, such as leukemia and other immune cell proliferation disorders. The data obtained could fundamentally change our understanding of these diseases.

Elisa Gomez Perdiguero and her team will also study the effects of prenatal disruption of embryonic progenitors in another context: that of tissue repair after injury. To do this, they will attempt to decipher the molecular changes that occur in cells derived from these progenitors, such as resident macrophages, which are essential to this tissue regeneration mechanism.