Nerve signals (left) direct the release of stem cells (right).

FRENETTE/ELSEVIER

The sympathetic nervous system prepares the body for emergencies. Heart rate and blood pressure rise, pupils dilate, blood is shunted from skin to muscle, and the gut shuts down. Now, Yoshio Katayama, Paul Frenette (Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY), and colleagues suggest another consequence of sympathetic nervous system activation: hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) exit the bone marrow and enter the blood. These HSPCs may be anticipating future injuries that will need a repair crew.

Frenette started out not with the nervous system but with a sulfated sugar polymer from seaweed. This sugar could mobilize HSPCs, presumably via an effect on adhesion, and the mouse Cgt enzyme made a sulfated glycolipid that looked similar. Mice lacking this Cgt enzyme had impaired HSPC mobilization.

But ideas about adhesion problems fell away...

The Rockefeller University Press
2006
The Rockefeller University Press
2006
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