Immunophenotype characterization of hematopoietic stem cells, progenitor cells restricted to myeloid lineage and their leukemia counterparts.

The aim of this review is to evaluate recent immunophenotype knowledge of hematopoietic stem cells and their restricted progenies committed to myeloid lineage - common myeloid progenitors, myelo-monocytic progenitors, megakaryo-erythroid progenitors and granulocyte progenitors up to mature neutrophil granulocyte. This study evaluates also recent knowledge of immunophenotype of leukemic stem cells and their more differentiated progeny committed to myeloid lineage - acute myeloid leukemia blast cells with regard to their phenotypic similarity to normal stem and granulocyte committed progenitor cells. Improved knowledge of normal stem and progenitor cells phenotypes, identifying new leukemia-specific markers, searching for aberrant marker expression and evaluation of aberrant intensity or combination of various marker expressions is important for distinguishing normal cells from their malignant counterpart in view of the diagnostics of leukemias or follow-up of minimal residual disease.