One cell one niche: hematopoietic microenvironments constructed by bone marrow stromal cells with fibroblastic and histiocytic features

Abstract

ABSTRACT Hematopoietic microenvironments have been extensively studied, especially focusing on regulation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in HSC niche following progress of molecular biology in resent years. Based on prior morphological achievements from 1970s, the characteristics of cellular compartments and bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) were studied ultrastructurally in human and mice bone marrow in the present study. The samples, human bone marrow granules, were collected from bone marrow aspirations (BMAs) of 20 patients with hematocytopenia and isolated BMSCs were found undesignedly in nucleated cells of BMAs of the patients. Femoral bone marrow samples were collected from 6-week-old three sacrificed mice. Detailed images illustrated maturing hematopoietic cells harbored individually in honeycomb-like microenvironment constituted by BMSCs that shared of fibroblastic and histiocytic characteristics in hematopoietic microenvironments of human and mice bone marrow.