Multipotent hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) differentiate into mature cells in the fetal liver (FL) during embryonic development, and in the bone marrow (BM) in adult animals. Multilineage differentiation is accomplished by the stepwise commitment of stem cells that sequentially loose differentiation potential. The characterization of the intermediate lymphoid precursors isolated from both hematopoietic sites suggests that, in FL, their potential of differentiation as well as their growth factor requirements are apparently less strict than in the BM. This could be the result of different commitment strategies at those sites: stochastic in the FL and instructive in the BM.