Blood cell development depends on one protein

Researchers have identified a protein called Flil that is required for the development of blood and blood vessels. Using frog and zebrafish embryos to study the effect of the protein on developing cells they found that when it is absent the blood and blood vessels fail to develop. The study results are published in Current Biology, the work was funded by the MRC.

The protein Flil is a transcription factor, this means it regulates the initiation of transcription of a strand of DNA into RNA and then eventually into protein. By studying the relationship of Flil to other transcription factors in developing frog and zebrafish embryos the researchers discovered that it tops the network of genes that lead to blood and blood-vessel cell development.

Blood and the cells that line blood vessels share a common lineage. Both develop from earlier cells called haemangioblasts. Without Flil haemangioblasts failed to develop or died.

Professor Roger Patient of the University of Oxford who led the study said:

‘‘This work increases our understanding of the genetic programming of these important cell types and may facilitate their production outside of the body in a lab environment for potential use in cell-based therapies for human blood and vascular diseases.’’

(Source: Current Biology: Medical Research Council: September 2008)