Blood feuds

Abstract

The infiltration of the bone marrow by leukemia cells has long been associated with a profound dysfunction in the stem and progenitor cells that form normal blood. Patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) thus experience infections, bleeding complications, and anemia as a result of stem/progenitor dysfunction. In this issue of Blood, Cheng et al1 demonstrate that this dysfunction of blood stem cells is mediated by a distinct and reversible pathway.