Modeling notch signaling in normal and neoplastic hematopoiesis: global gene expression profiling in response to activated notch expression.

In normal hematopoiesis, proliferation is tightly linked to differentiation in ways that involve cell-cell interaction with stromal elements in the bone marrow stem cell niche. Numerous in vitro and in vivo studies strongly support a role for Notch signaling in the regulation of stem cell renewal and hematopoiesis. Not surprisingly, mutations in the Notch gene have been linked to a number of types of malignancies.