Clonal analysis of thymus-repopulating cells presents direct evidence for self-renewal division of human hematopoietic stem cells.

To elucidate the in vivo kinetics of human hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), CD34+CD38- cells were infected with lentivirus vector and transplanted into immunodeficient mice. We analyzed the multilineage differentiation and self-renewal abilities of individual thymus-repopulating clones in primary recipients, and their descending clones in paired secondary recipients, by tracing lentivirus gene integration sites in each lymphomyeloid progeny using a linear amplification-mediated polymerase chain reaction (PCR) strategy. Our clonal analysis revealed that a single human thymus-repopulating cell had the ability to produce lymphoid and myeloid lineage cells in the primary recipient and each secondary recipient, indicating that individual human HSCs expand clonally by self-renewal division.