Roswell Park Cancer Institute Carleton C. Stewart, Ph.D. email Cytokine receptor expression on hematopoietic progenitor cells is the research focus of the Laboratory of Flow Cytometry. Hematopoietic cells are derived from a small pool of multi potential stem cells, which differentiate into committed progenitor cells for each hematopoietic lineage. These cells further expand to produce functional end cells. Antibodies have been produced to many of the proteins on the membrane of hematopoietic cells, including cytokine receptors, adhesion molecules, activation molecules and metabolic molecules. Since a unique repertoire of these proteins is displayed for each subset along the differentiation pathway, we are able to separate and identify specific cell populations using flow cytometry.
Hematopoietic cells are responsive to a number of cytokines.
We hypothesize that hematopoietic cell subsets express a unique repertoire of cytokine receptors whose engagement by ligand regulates proliferation and differentiation. This regulation can be directed by altering the combination of cytokines within the cell s immediate microenvironment. If this hypothesis is true, all members of any hematopoietic lineage could be represented in culture once provided the correct cytokine cocktail. Thus, research is focused on determining the correct cytokine stem cell cocktail. To accomplish this, a process has been developed to simultaneously immunophenotype cells and evaluate their cytokine receptor and ligand expression.