Analysis of the Vascular Potential of Hematopoietic Stem Cells

The hematopoietic stem cells residing in the bone marrow have tremendous proliferative and self-renewing capacity, and until recently these cells were thought to produce only progeny of the blood lineages. We have recently demonstrated that these cells are capable of producing endothelial cells of blood vessels. This chapter will outline the methodology for producing chimeric mice through labeled bone marrow transplantation and induction of these donor cells in order to track their plasticity, or their ability to produce nonhematopoietic tissues, specifically blood vessels.