run in TBE £0.5 at room temperature for 2 h at 150 V. The following two (Q/q) 27-bp unmethylated oligonucleotides were used: 5 0 -GATCCTTCGCCTAGGCTC(A/G)CAGCG CGGGAGCGA-3 0 . A methylated q probe (q*) was generated by incorporating a methylated cytosine at the mutated CpG site during oligonucleotide synthesis. Transient transfection assayThe constructs contained 578 bp from IGF2 intron 3 (nucleotides 2868-3446), followed by the IGF2 P3 promoter (nucleotides 2222 to þ45 relative to the start of transcription) 12 and a luciferase reporter. C2C12 myoblast cells were grown to approximately 80% confluence. Cells were transiently co-transfected with the firefly luciferase reporter construct (4 mg) and a Renilla luciferase control vector (phRG-TK, Promega; 80 ng) using 10 mg Lipofectamine 2000 (Invitrogen). Cells were incubated for 25 h before lysis in 100 ml Triton lysis solution. Luciferase activities were measured using the Dual-Luciferase Reporter Assay System (Promega). The results are based on four triplicate experiments using two independent plasmid preparations for each construct. Statistical analysis was done with an analysis of variance.

Haematopoietic stem cell (HSC) niches, although proposed decades ago, have only recently been identified as separate osteoblastic and vascular microenvironments. Their interrelationships and interactions with HSCs in vivo remain largely unknown. Here we report the use of a newly developed ex vivo real-time imaging technology and immunoassaying to trace the homing of purified green-fluorescent-protein-expressing (GFP(+)) HSCs. We found that transplanted HSCs tended to home to the endosteum (an inner bone surface) in irradiated mice, but were randomly distributed and unstable in non-irradiated mice. Moreover, GFP(+) HSCs were more frequently detected in the trabecular bone area compared with compact bone area, and this was validated by live imaging bioluminescence driven by the stem-cell-leukaemia (Scl) promoter-enhancer. HSCs home to bone marrow through the vascular system. We found that the endosteum is well vascularized and that vasculature is frequently localized near N-cadherin(+) pre-osteoblastic cells, a known niche component. By monitoring individual HSC behaviour using real-time imaging, we found that a portion of the homed HSCs underwent active division in the irradiated mice, coinciding with their expansion as measured by flow assay. Thus, in contrast to central marrow, the endosteum formed a special zone, which normally maintains HSCs but promotes their expansion in response to bone marrow damage.

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