Figure 1.

Hematopoietic processes impacted by endocrine-disrupting compounds. The dual process of long-term self-renewal and multilineage differentiation is a highly ordered and regulated hierarchical process illustrated here. Functional characterization of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells is facilitated by cell sorting of these cells based on the differential expression of surface proteins identified on the left side of the diagram. Proteins expressed on human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells are colored in blue, and murine markers are in black. In general, hematopoiesis is characterized by HSCs giving rise to multipotent and subsequently oligopotent progenitors concomitant with a loss of long-term self-renewal potential. Oligopotent progenitors consist of common lymphoid precursors (CLPs), common myeloid precursors (CMPs), myeloid/erythrocyte precursors (MEPs), and granulocyte/macrophage precursors (GMPs). In response to intrinsic and extrinsic factors present in the hematopoietic niche, oligopotent progenitors become further specified to become lineage restricted progenitors. Linage-restricted progenitors consist of megakaryocyte progenitors (MkPs), erythrocyte progenitors (EPs), granulocyte progenitors (GPs), promacrophages (ProMs), prodendritic cells (ProDCs), pro-B, pro-NK, and pro-T cells. Lineage-restricted progenitors undergo additional maturation, selection, and specification to become mature effector cells. A nonexhaustive list of environmental contaminants and endocrine-disrupting compounds known to impact fetal hematopoiesis and described in this review are identified in red, along with the stage(s) of hematopoiesis affected by the specific agent. Additionally, endocrine-disrupting compounds suspected of impacting hematopoiesis based on their known mode(s) of action are listed in green.