This cytokine plays an important role in hematopoiesis (formation of blood cells), spermatogenesis, and melanogenesis.

The gene encoding stem cell factor (SCF) is found on the Sl locus in mice and on chromosome 12q22-12q24 in humans.

Sites where hematopoiesis takes place, such as the fetal liver and bone marrow, all express SCF.

[10] During development, the presence of the SCF also plays an important role in the localization of melanocytes, cells that produce melanin and control pigmentation.

Melanoblasts express the KIT receptor, and it is believed that SCF guides these cells to their terminal locations.

SCF is expressed along the pathways that the germ cells use to reach their terminal destination in the body.

[9] SCF plays a role in the regulation of HSCs in the stem cell niche in the bone marrow.

SCF has been shown to increase adhesion and thus may play a large role in ensuring that HSCs remain in the niche.

[15] In adult mice, the injection of the ACK2 anti-KIT antibody, which binds to the c-Kit receptor and inactivates it, leads to severe problems in hematopoiesis.

In addition, SCF promotes mast cell adhesion, migration, proliferation, and survival.

The expansion of these cells ex-vivo (outside the body) would allow advances in bone marrow transplantation, in which HSCs are transferred to a patient to re-establish blood formation.

[9] Cardiomyocyte-specific overexpression of transmembrane SCF promotes stem cell migration and improves cardiac function and animal survival after myocardial infarction.