A study of the cells that respond to crises in the blood system has yielded a few surprises, redrawing the ‘map’ of how blood cells are made in the body.

The finding, by researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, could have wide-ranging implications for understanding blood diseases such as myeloproliferative disorders (that cause excess production of blood cells) as well as used to develop new ways of controlling how blood and clotting cells are produced.

The research team, led by Drs Ashley Ng and Maria Kauppi from the institute’s Cancer and Haematology division, investigated subsets of blood ‘progenitor’ cells and the signals that cause them to expand and develop into mature blood cells. Their results are published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.