Stem cell transcription factors.

The individual properties of hematopoietic stem cells, including self-renewal, maintenance of pluripotency, and asymmetric cell division, must depend at some level on the functions of specific transcription factors. Recently, valuable insights into stem cell transcription factor function have emerged from targeted gene disruption (knockout) studies in mice. Absence of transcription factors belonging to diverse protein families results in interference with expansion and differentiation of either the stem cell itself or of primitive multipotential progenitors. The findings from these and complementary experiments provide a framework for examining the transcription control of the earliest cellular events in hematopoiesis.