Hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) act as paradigmatic tissue-specific adult stem cells. While they are quiescent in steady-state conditions, they enter the cell cycle and proliferate in stress conditions and during tissue regeneration. Therefore, analysis of cell cycle status of HSC is crucial for understanding their biology. However, due to low number of HSC in tissue and need to use many surface markers for their identification, analysis of their cycle status is technically complicated. Here, we presented our simple strategy to analyze cell cycle of strictly defined LKS CD48(-)CD150(+)CD34(-) HSC, together with Ki67 and DAPI staining by flow cytometry.
Keywords: Activation; Cell cycle phase; Dormancy; Flow cytometry; G0; G1; Hematopoietic stem cells; Ki67; Proliferation; Quiescence.