Abstract
The sequence of DNA is the same in all somatic cells of an organism, despite the variety of cells that exist within the organism. Mammalian blood, for example, contains a number of distinct mature cell types. These mature cells are all derived from hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Both HSCs and mature cells have the same genome, but their gene expression is controlled by epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation and histone modification, enabling each cell-type to acquire various forms and functions. Recently, improvements in NGS (next-generation sequencing) technology have allowed extensive epigenetic analysis with small amounts of cells, improving our understanding of the role of epigenetics in stem cells. In this review, we focus on the epigenetic regulation of HSCs.
