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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2020 Jun 1.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Mater. 2019 Apr 3;4(6):355–378. doi: 10.1038/s41578-019-0100-9

Fig. 2 |. Engineering bone marrow niches.

Fig. 2 |

a | Transplantation of haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) is one of the most widely used cell therapies. Donor HSCs are collected from bone marrow or blood, purified and transferred to a conditioned recipient, b | Bone marrow comprises distinct HSC niches, including the endosteum and vascular niches, with distinct molecular and cellular compositions. Niche-specific factors drive HSC fate. HSC niches can be designed by engineering a specific extracellular matrix (ECM) and by modelling cell-cell interactions. The vascular niche can be engineered for platelet production, and entire bone marrow tissue can be obtained by implanting materials in animal models to trigger bone marrow formation. These tissues can then be explanted and maintained in a bioreactor for continuous HSC expansion.