Published online Oct 26, 2015. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v7.i9.1145
Peer-review started: May 30, 2015
First decision: August 4, 2015
Revised: August 24, 2015
Accepted: October 12, 2015
Article in press: October 13, 2015
Published online: October 26, 2015
Processing time: 155 Days and 17.1 Hours
Normal and abnormal hematopoiesis is working as a complex adaptive system. From this perspective, the development and the behavior of hematopoietic cell lineages appear as a balance between normal and abnormal hematopoiesis in the setting of a functioning or malfunctioning microenvironment under the control of the immune system and the influence of hereditary and environmental events.
Core tip: Complex adaptive systems are self-organizing systems involved everywhere. In bone marrow, cell lineages are working as a complex adaptive sytem. While the standard leukemia stem cell theory postulates that rare stem cells with self-renewal capacities are able to give rise to partially differentiated progenies, leukemia appears as a breakdown of the existing biological order under the influence of genetic and environmental factors, more than only the presence of abnormal cells.