Near-maximal expansions of hematopoietic stem cells in culture using NUP98-HOX fusions.

Objective: Strategies to expand hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) ex vivo are of key interest. The objective of this study was to resolve if ability of HOXB4, previously documented to induce a significant expansion of HSCs in culture, may extend to other HOX genes and also to further analyze the HOX sequence requirements to achieve this effect.

Methods: To investigate the ability of Nucleoporin98-Homeobox fusion genes to stimulate HSC self-renewal, we evaluated their presence in 10- to 20-day cultures of transduced mouse bone marrow cells.