Discovery of human blood cell destinies revises knowledge of immune cell development

Immune cells protect the host from infection by pathogens. They include monocytes, which are large white blood cells that can differentiate into scavenger cells macrophages and dendritic cells in response to inflammatory signals. Monocytes are derived from blood stem cells in the bone marrow via an intermediate cell type, the progenitor cell, which is slightly more differentiated than stem cells. Previous research identified a common monocyte progenitor cell (cMoP) in mice that only develops int