Understanding the blood stem cell niche has the potential to improve the safety of blood stem cell transplants for donors, and for patients with blood disorders and cancers. In humans and other mammals, the stem cells that give rise to all blood cells are located in the bone. But in fish, blood stem cells are found in the kidney. Since the late 1970s, when biologists first realized that blood develops in a specific location in the body -- the 'blood stem cell niche' -- they have wondered why different creatures have evolved to carry out this function in different locations. Forty years later, scientists have found a valuable clue: the niche evolved to protect blood stem cells from the harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays in sunlight. The findings are published in Nature by researchers at the Harvard Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Boston Children's Hospital's Stem Cell Program, and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.
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