An adult uterine hemangioblast: evidence for extramedullary self-renewal and clonal bilineage potential.

Stem cells exhibit long-term self-renewal by asymmetric division and multipotent differentiation. During embryonic development, cell fate is determined with predictable orientation, differentiation, and partitioning to form the organism. This includes the formation of a hemangioblast from which 2 derivative cell clusters commit to either a hematopoietic or an endothelial lineage. Frequently, it is not clear whether tissue resident stem cells in the adult originate from the bone marrow. Here, we show that blast colony-forming cells exhibiting bilineage (hematopoietic and vascular) potential and long-term self-renewal originate from the uterus in the mouse. This is the first in vitro and in vivo evidence of an adult hemangioblast retained from development in the uterus. Our findings offer new understanding of uterine cell renewal and turnover and may provide insights and opportunities for the study of stem cell maintenance.