Cadherin-Based Adhesion Is a Potential Target for Niche Manipulation to Protect Hematopoietic Stem Cells in Adult Bone Marrow

During postnatal life, hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are maintained in specialized bone marrow (BM) niches (Morrison and Spradling, 2008; Wilson and Trumpp, 2006; Yin and Li, 2006). Cadherins are major cell adhesion molecules responsible for Ca2+-dependent cell-cell interaction (Gumbiner, 1996), but the role of cadherin function, and more specifically N-cadherin, in HSC-niche interactions has been controversial (Li and Zon, 2010). In this study, we analyzed the expression of various cadherin (cad) genes in long-term HSCs (LT-HSCs) and subpopulations of the cells isolated from the endosteum.