Engineering bone marrow-on-a-chip

Bone marrow is the permanent hematopoietic organ; the main function is to produce blood cells for the body through life. The microenvironment of bone marrow contains a complex set of cellular, chemical, and physical signals to maintain the hematopoietic system (1-3). The hematopoietic niche regulates hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) to facilitate a balance between self-renewal and differentiation into progenitor cells that produce all types of blood cells.