Ageing within the hematopoietic stem cell compartment.

As we humans are far too aware, all mammals have a finite lifespan. Apart from basic longevity, age is also a major risk factor for most cancers and diseases. Since adult stem cells are responsible for maintaining tissue homeostasis throughout an organism's lifetime, an attractive theory is that ageing-related phenotypes might be, at least in part, due to an alteration in the number and/or function of tissue stem cells. Here, we have focused on hematopoietic stem cells as they are one of the best-characterized adult stem cell populations, and have been extensively studied for the consequences of ageing in vivo and in vitro.