Impaired migration but not differentiation of haematopoietic stem cells in the absence of β1 integrins

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Abstract
ADHESIVE interactions mediated by integrins of the β1 subfamily1 are thought to be critical in controlling differentiation and migration of blood cell precursors2–7. Here we report that chimaeric mice generated with β1-integrin-deficient embryonic stem (ES) cells8,9 lack β−/− cells in blood and in haematopoietic organs such as spleen, thymus and bone marrow. Chimaeric embryos contain β1,-null haematopoietic cells in the yolk sac and in fetal blood but not in fetal liver. We show that such β−/− haematopoietic stem cells derived from yolk sac of 10.5-day-old chimaeric embryos readily generate erythroid and myeloid colonies and that β1−/− ES cells can differentiate into mature B lymphocytes in vitro. Our results indicate that haematopoietic stem cells lacking β1, integrins can form and differentiate into different lineages but cannot colonize the fetal liver.