HSPCs in the Balance: The Vascular Niche

Recently, in Nature Cell Biology, Kobayashi et al. (2010) report that Akt-activated sinusoidal endothelial cells within the bone marrow modulate the self-renewal and differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells. This finding demonstrates a mechanistic role for endothelial cells in regulating the hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells' pool during homeostasis and in response to myeloablative stress