Mitochondrial and Lysosomal Metabolism in Hematopoietic Stem Cells

Through an organism’s lifespan, stem cells are guided, selected and eventually settle on a coordinated cell fate decision at the single cell level. To maintain tissue homeostasis, tissue stem cells differentiate, expand or remain in dormancy. The net output of tissue stem cell fate decisions is a balance between differentiation to mature progeny and conservation of a substantial number of stem cells. The cell fate of a tissue stem cell is determined by various cell-intrinsic and -extrinsic cues. Cellular metabolism is one of the major cell-intrinsic factors, but can also be modulated extrinsically, and a growing number of studies have highlighted key roles in the metabolic crosstalk between mitochondria and lysosomes in stem cells. This article will focus on the metabolic regulation of hematopoietic stem cells in the adult bone marrow and will compare this regulation to that of other stem cell systems.