During intrauterine development, the liver is the main site of blood cell formation. Shortly after birth, however, this activity decreases sharply and hematopoiesis shifts to the bone marrow. This process has not yet been sufficiently studied in human newborns, mainly due to the lack of suitable samples. Researchers from the Laboratory of Adipose Tissue Biology at IPHYS and the First Faculty of Medicine of Charles University in Prague have now published a study that brings new insights into the differential decline of various blood cell lineages after birth.
The team led by Jan Kopecký described how hematopoiesis in the liver of newborns changes after delivery. The scientists analyzed rare liver samples taken from 25 mostly preterm infants who passed away within the first hours or days after birth. Using a combination of classical immunohistological approaches and advanced molecular biology methods that provide information about gene activation, they were able to describe in detail the course of suppression across different branches of hematopoiesis.
The researchers discovered that the production of red blood cells (erythrocytes) in the liver of newborns decreases very rapidly—within just three days after birth. In contrast, the production of white blood cells (granulopoiesis) in the liver declines more slowly, which temporarily results in a relatively higher proportion of these cells in the tissue compared to erythrocytes.
“The overall decline of hematopoietic activity in the liver depends both on the gestational age of the infant and on the time elapsed since birth; however, the most critical factor is the very moment of birth itself,” explains lead researcher Jan Kopecký.
The study also identified specific genes and transcription factors that differentially regulate the various branches of hematopoiesis in the newborn liver after birth.
“The new findings show how quickly and differently the individual blood cell lineages in the liver develop after birth. They help us better understand the hematopoietic problems and abnormal blood counts in preterm infants and may also contribute to the development of new therapeutic approaches,” adds another study author, Petr Zouhar, from IPHYS.
The study, published in Frontiers in Pediatrics, was made possible thanks to a unique biobank of samples built up over the long term with parental consent. The research was supported by the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic (grant NU20-07-00026).
Reference: Janovská P., Bardová K., Prouzová Z., Irodenko I., Kobets T., Haasová E., Steiner Mrázová L., Stránecký V., Kmoch S., Rossmeisl M., Zouhar P., Kopecký J.: Faster postnatal decline in hepatic erythropoiesis than granulopoiesis in human newborns. Front Pediatr
13:1572836 (2025).
doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1572836
