Hemangioblast: an in vitro phantom

The hemangioblast, a bipotent progenitor that generates both endothelial cells (EC) and blood cells (BC) in the blood islands (BI) of the yolk sac (YS) has been a core notion of developmental hematology since the early 20th century. However, its actual presence has not been directly addressed for lo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inWiley interdisciplinary reviews. Developmental biology Vol. 1; no. 4; p. 603
Main Author Nishikawa, Shinichi
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.07.2012
Subjects
Animals
Blood Cells - cytology
Cell Differentiation
Cell Lineage
Embryonic Stem Cells - cytology
Endothelial Cells - cytology
Yolk Sac - cytology
Yolk Sac - embryology
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Summary:The hemangioblast, a bipotent progenitor that generates both endothelial cells (EC) and blood cells (BC) in the blood islands (BI) of the yolk sac (YS) has been a core notion of developmental hematology since the early 20th century. However, its actual presence has not been directly addressed for long. At the very end of the 20th century, the hemangioblast was revisited as a result of the development of new technologies that enable detection of such bipotent precursors in vitro. Such studies provided evidence for the presence of bipotent precursors for EC and BC. On the other hand, subsequent studies analyzing the processes occurring within BI strongly argued against the notion of hemanigioblasts and suggest that the hemangioblast is an in vitro artefact. In this article, I overview the history of the study of the hemangioblast and try to explain why hemangioblast that can be defined in vitro cannot be detected in BI.
ISSN:1759-7692
DOI:10.1002/wdev.38