Blood homeostasis is maintained by a rare population of quiescent hematopoietic stem cells
(HSCs) that self-renew and differentiate to give rise to all lineages of mature blood cells. In
contrast to most other blood cells, HSCs are preserved throughout life, and the maintenance
of their genomic integrity is therefore paramount to ensure normal blood production and to
prevent leukemic transformation. HSCs are also one of the few blood cells that truly age and
exhibit severe functional decline in old organisms, resulting in impaired blood homeostasis …