Stem cells undergo circadian cycles in humans, emerging from the bone marrow into the bloodstream at higher concentrations at night than in the day, according to a report in __Cell Stem Cell__ linkurl:this week.;http://www.cellstemcell.com/ The study suggests that a simple change in hospital procedures could significantly increase stem cell yield for therapy. "We can take advantage of [the findings] if we coordinate our clinical practices" to harvest stem cells for cancer patients late in the day, said author Paul Frenette, a clinical researcher at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The work is an update on a paper published linkurl:online in February;http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v452/n7186/abs/nature06685.html by the same group in __Nature.__ In that study, Frenette and his colleagues showed that haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) leave their niche in mouse bone marrow and travel through the blood during the day -- the mouse's time of rest. A cytokine called CXCL12 expressed by stromal cells in...
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