Hematopoietic ontogeny and its relevance for pediatric leukemias

Fetal and infant hematopoiesis display characteristics different from the adult one: our suggestion is that these features may help to explain the peculiar incidence rates of acute leukemias. Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are fast-cycling (those in adults instead are largely quiescent) and studies in mice demonstrated that their relative contribution to myelo- and lymphopoiesis varies during development. We hypothesize that during development some of the “hits” needed for the onset of leukemia are usually occurring (being part of the normal development), so leukemogenesis needs less mutations than in adults to take place and therefore it's more probable. The switch between the relative incidence of acute myeloid and lymphoid leukemias may be related to the changes of the percentage of lymphoid-deficient and lymphoid-proficient sub-set of HSCs during development. Further investigations may clarify this hypothesis, elucidating also the roles of the different microenvironments in determining the myeloid/lymphoid predisposition of the HSCs.