Breaching the Kinetic Barrier to in Vitro Somatic Stem Cell Propagation英文文献资料.docVIP

Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology? 1:1 (2001)25–27 ? PII. S1110724301000067? PERSPECTIVE Breachingthekineticbarriertoinvitrosomatic stemcellpropagation Joshua R. Merok and James L. Sherley? DivisionofBioengineeringandEnvironmentalHealthandCenterforEnvironmentalHealthSciences, Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology,Cambridge,Massachusetts 02139,USA Here we have reviewed the conventional de?nitions and fundamental characteristics of the two basic types of stem cells, embryonic stem cells (ESCs)and somatic stem cells (SSCs). By taking into account the often-overlooked asymmetric cell kinetics of SSCs, we consider the evidence that should SSCs retain these growth kineticsinvitro, a natural kinetic barrier to SSC propagation exists. Recent discoveries showing that the tumor suppressor genep53 can act as a regulator of asymmetric cell kinetics provide a target pathway forinvitro SSC propagation strategies. Early experiments by cell histologists such as Leblond in- ferred the existence of pluripotent progenitor cells, or stem cells [1, 2]. As stem cell research progressed, it became ap- parent that there existed two basic types of stem cells (Fig- ure 1). The ?rst, ESCs, are derived from blastocysts and are suf?ciently undifferentiated to allow them to give rise to any adult tissue [3]. This pluripotency can be seen in the abil- ity of ESCs to be incorporated into developing mouse em- bryos during transgenic mouse production [4]. The other major type, SSCs, are stem cell populations found in speci?c adult tissues that are thought to divide inde?nitely with re- stricted invivo differentiation capacity [5]. SSC properties have classically been demonstrated by reconstitution of the ablated hematopoietic system of irradiated mice with a sub- population of bone marrow or fetal liver cells [6]. The value of isolating and characterizing pure SSC popu- lations is enormous. Already,current stem cell technology ha