by assigning the symbols "+", "-", "~" whenever two successive measurements of the percent donor-type cells have a positive, negative, or unchanged slope, respectively. by using the hamming distance, the repopulation patterns were subjected to cluster analysis yielding 16 distinct groups of kinetics. to finish the empirical proof, the laplace add-one approach was used to determine that the probability of finding kinetics not contained in these 16 groups is very small. by corollary, this result shows that the hematopoietic stem cell compartment is also heterogeneous by dynamical criteria. it was originally believed that all hematopoietic stem cells were alike in their self-renewal and differentiation abilities. this view was first challenged by the 2002 discovery by the muller-sieburg group in san diego, who illustrated that different stem cells can show distinct repopulation patterns that are epigenetically predetermined intrinsic properties of clonal thy-1lo sca-1+ lin− c-kit+ hsc. the results of these clonal studies led to the notion of lineage bias. using the ratio ρ = l / m of lymphoid (l) to myeloid (m) cells in blood as a quantitative marker, the stem cell compartment can be split into three categories of hsc. balanced (bala) hematopoietic stem cells repopulate peripheral white blood cells in the same ratio of myeloid to lymphoid cells as seen in unmanipulated mice (on average about 15% myeloid and 85% lymphoid cells, or 3 ≤ ρ ≤ 10). myeloid-biased (my-bi) hematopoietic stem cells give rise to very few lymphocytes resulting in ratios 0 < ρ < 3, while lymphoid-biased (ly-bi) hematopoietic stem cells generate very few myeloid cells, which results in lymphoid-to-myeloid ratios of ρ > 10. all three types are normal types of hsc, and they do not represent stages of differentiation. rather, these are three classes of hsc, each with an epigenetically fixed differentiation program. these studies also showed that lineage bias is not stochastically regulated or dependent on differences in environmental influence. my-bi hsc self-renew longer than balanced or ly-bi hsc. the myeloid bias results from reduced responsiveness to the lymphopoetin interleukin 7 (il-7). subsequently, other groups confirmed and highlighted the original findings. for example, the eaves group confirmed in 2007 that repopulation kinetics, long-term self-renewal capacity, and my-bi and ly-bi are stably inherited intrinsic hsc properties. in 2010, the goodell group provided additional insights about the molecular basis of lineage bias in side population (sp) sca-1+ lin− c-kit+ hsc. as previously shown for il-7 signaling, it was found that a member of the transforming growth factor family (tgf-beta) induces and inhibits the proliferation of my-bi and ly-bi hsc, respectively. etymology from greek haimato-, combining form of haima 'blood', and from the latinized form of greek poietikos 'capable of making, creative, productive', from poiein 'to make, create'.