Transcriptional and epigenetic regulation in the development of myeloid cells: normal and diseased myelopoiesis
Abstract
Myeloid cells constitute the innate arm of the vertebrate immune system and arise from haematopoietic stem cells being committed to their cell fate through a series of lineage restrictions regulated by a gene regulatory network. This gene network consists of transcription factors as well as components of the epigenetic machinery that, in cooperation with one another, will programme progenitors to adopt and differentiate along a certain lineage programme.
By virtue of their obligatory function, dysregulation in the activity of these regulatory factors can contribute to the pathogenesis of myeloid leukaemias. To understand the molecular aetiology of myeloid dysplasias it is imperative to first study and model the network that regulates normal development.
Equipped with this crucial understanding we can then begin to decipher what, how and why things have gone wrong in the pathology of myeloid leukaemias.