Novel factors from stromal cells: Bone marrow and thymus microenvironments

Abstract

The microenvironments contained within mammalian bone marrow and thymus play major roles in the life‐long process of myeloid and lymphoid cell development and renewal. The cells that give architecture to these microenvironments are collectively referred to as stromal cells, and these cells grow as adherent cell types in cell culture. Stromal cells are predominantly a mixture of fibroblasts, cells of macrophage/dendritic lineages, epithelial and endothelial cells. There are at least three mechanisms that govern the interaction of stromal cells with hematopoietic and lymphoid cells: soluble factors, or cytokines, membrane‐anchored growth factors and cell surface recognition molecules, such as integrins and selections. Little is known of the mechanisms that preserve the integrity of local microenvironments and how subpopulations of cells are transiently retained in microenvironments during various maturational states. Different lymphoid cells develop in bone marrow and thymus despite the similarities in stromal cells of these tissues. It remains a major quest to determine how the components of microenvironments of these organs regulate lineage‐specific differentiation. The focus here is on stromal cells, the early development of myeloid cells and B lymphocytes in bone marrow and T lymphocytes in the thymus.