Intracellular Trafficking of G-CSF Receptor: Mechanisms and Implications for Signaling Function

Hematopoiesis is the formation and development of blood cells. This process takes place in humans prenatally in the embryonic yolk sac in the first 3 to 6 weeks after gestation (Dzierzak et al., 1998; Palis and Yoder, 2001). By the third month of development, the fetal liver is the predominant hematopoietic organ and after birth, the bone marrow becomes the major site of hematopoiesis. All blood cells develop from hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). An HSC has the ability to undergo asymmetric cell division, producing one identical stem cell daughter cell (self renewal) and one progenitor cell that has the potential to give rise to progeny of all blood cell lineages (pluripotency). The direct descendants of the pluripotent progenitors are the lineage restricted or committed progenitor cells, which proliferate and differentiate into distinct mature blood cells, i.e., granulocytes (neutrophils, eosinophils and basophils), lymphocytes, erythrocytes, monocytes (macrophages), natural killer cells, mast cells, platelets and dendritic cells.

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