Blood stem cells, the so-called hematopoietic cells have the remarkable ability to transform into any blood cell, that is, into a white or red blood cell or platelets. From these cells, the basic cells of the blood system and the immune system are formed.
Patients who suffer from serious blood disorders, including certain types of cancer, often need a hematopoietic cell transplant. It is very difficult to obtain enough of these cells for transplantation because there are few hematopoietic cells in the bone marrow. In order to minimize the risk to the donor, a procedure is usually performed to move the hematopoietic cells from the marrow into the peripheral blood. For this, a protein called G-CSF is used, but unfortunately the results obtained with this method are not satisfactory.
Hartmut Geiger and colleagues at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center discovered that the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is involved in the mobilization of hematopoietic cells via G-CSF. In studies in mice, scientists have shown that reducing the expression of EGFR in blood stem cells significantly increases the activation of these cells by G-CSF and the transfer of these cells to the peripheral blood.
Importantly, the anti-cancer drug erlotinib, which inhibits the action of EGFR, has the same effect. (PAP)