Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Pain-sensing neurons mobilize blood stem cells from bone marrow

Pain-sensing nerve cells can mobilize blood stem cells in mice, with a component of chilli peppers being one stimulus. The finding holds the promise of improving procedures for stem-cell transplantation.
  1. Anastasia N. Tikhonova

    1. Anastasia N. Tikhonova is at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  2. Iannis Aifantis

    1. Iannis Aifantis is in the Department of Pathology and Perlmutter Cancer Center, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York 10016, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

The cardinal feature of blood stem cells is their ability to regenerate the body’s entire blood and immune systems. The process is known as haematopoiesis, and the cells are better known as haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). In developing embryos, HSCs shuffle around distinct anatomical sites, with blood circulation enabling their trafficking. After birth, these cells reside in specialized niches in the bone marrow that support their quiescence and self-renewal1. Throughout life, HSCs are released from the bone marrow to replenish blood cells in a circadian pattern that is under the control of involuntary nerves2. Pain-sensing nerves also make connections with the bone marrow, but can these neurons mobilize HSCs, too? Writing in Nature, Gao et al.3 address this question and identify a surprising role for chilli peppers.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 589, 520-521 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-03577-7

References

  1. Crane, G. M., Jeffery, E. & Morrison, S. J. Nature Rev. Immunol. 17, 573–590 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Méndez-Ferrer, S., Lucas, D., Battista, M. & Frenette, P. S. Nature 452, 442–447 (2008).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Gao, X. et al. Nature 589, 591–596 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. To, L. B., Levesque, J.-P. & Herbert, K. E. Blood 118, 4530–4540 (2011).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Donmez, A., Yilmaz, F., Gokmen, N. & Tombuloglu, M. Transfus. Apher. Sci. 49, 485–488 (2013).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Dubin, A. E. & Patapoutian, A. J. Clin. Invest. 120, 3760–3772 (2010).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Calvo, W. Am. J. Anat. 123, 315–328 (1968).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Agarwala, S. & Tamplin, O. J. Trends Cell. Biol. 28, 987–998 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Picoli, C. C. et al. Stem Cells Transl. Med. https://doi.org/10.1002/sctm.20-0284 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Hanoun, M. et al. Cell Stem Cell 15, 365–375 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links