The Role of Hex in Hemangioblast and Hematopoietic Development

The orphan homeobox gene Hex has been shown to be critical for normal murine liver development using Hex ^-/- mice. Because of the early lethality of the Hex ^-/- mice, however, in vitro embryonic stem cell differentiation assays were employed to elucidate the role of Hex in murine hematopoiesis. These studies revealed that Hex is not required for hemangioblast development but is required in a dose-dependent fashion for hemangioblast differentiation to definitive hematopoietic progenitors. Contained here are the methods needed to conduct embryonic stem cell-derived in vitro hematopoietic assays.