Results: Here, with a mouse strain engineered with conditional expression of Hoxb5, we unveiled that induced expression of Hoxb5 in MPP led to the generation of a de novo Sca1+ c-kit+ CD11b+ CD48+ (CD11b+ CD48+ SK) cell type, which can repopulate long-term multilineage haematopoiesis in serial transplantations. RNA-seq analysis showed that CD11b+ CD48+ SK cells exhibited acquired features of DNA replication and cell division.

Conclusions: Our current study uncovers that Hoxb5 can empower MPP with self-renewal ability and indicates an alternative approach for generating HSC-like cells in vivo from blood lineage cells.