干细胞理论及研究进展

干细胞是目前细胞工程研究最活跃的领域,通过对各种干细胞的界定,胚胎干细胞和成体干细胞的比较研究、以及干细胞的技术应用,揭示出干细胞尤其是胚胎干细胞在医学以及整个生命科学中的巨大潜势,乃至于引发医学领域的重大变革。     

干细胞巢研究进展

干细胞巢即干细胞周围的微环境构成,一般包括干细胞的相邻细胞、粘附分子及基质等,但不同的干细胞有不同的巢结构。干细胞巢通过不同信号途径调控着干细胞的行为,使干细胞的自我更新和分化处于平衡状态。根据近年来有关干细胞巢的研究,本文从果蝇生殖系干细胞巢、哺乳动物造血干细胞巢、肠干细胞巢、毛囊表皮干细胞巢和神经干细胞巢等五个系统分别综述了干细胞巢的构成及其对干细胞的调节作用,探讨了干细胞巢作用于干细胞的内在机制。     

Ascl2-Dependent Cell Dedifferentiation Drives Regeneration of Ablated Intestinal Stem Cells

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利用成体干细胞治疗糖尿病

糖尿病是一类严重的代谢疾病, 正危害着世界上越来越多人口的健康。胰岛移植是一种治疗糖尿病的有效方法,却因供体缺乏和移植后免疫排斥问题制约了其广泛应用。干细胞为具有强增殖能力和多向分化潜能的细胞, 是利用细胞替代疗法治疗重大疾病的细胞来源之一, 其中成体干细胞因不存在致瘤性及伦理道德问题而被人们寄予厚望。成体胰腺干细胞在活体损伤及离体培养条件下均能产生胰岛素分泌细胞, 肝干细胞、骨髓干细胞和肠干细胞等在特定离体培养条件下或经过遗传改造后也均可产生胰岛素分泌细胞, 将这些干细胞来源的胰岛素分泌细胞移植到模型糖尿病小鼠中可以治疗糖尿病。因而, 成体干细胞可以为细胞替代疗法治疗糖尿病提供丰富的胰岛供体来源。     

胚胎干细胞向血液干细胞定向分化的研究进展

骨髓移植是目前治疗恶性白血病以及遗传性血液病最有效的方法之一。但是HLA相匹配的骨髓捐献者严重短缺,骨髓造血干细胞（hematopoietic stem cells,HSCs）体外培养困难,在体外修复患者骨髓造血干细胞技术不成熟,这些都大大限制了骨髓移植在临床上的应用。多能性胚胎干细胞（embryonic stem cells,ESCs）具有自我更新能力,在合适的培养条件下分化形成各种血系细胞,是造血干细胞的另一来源。在过去的二十多年里,血发生的研究是干细胞生物学中最为活跃的领域之一。小鼠及人的胚胎干细胞方面的研究最近取得了重大进展。这篇综述总结了近年来从胚胎干细胞获得造血干细胞的成就,以及在安全和技术上的障碍。胚胎干细胞诱导生成可移植性血干细胞的研究能够使我们更好地了解正常和异常造血发生的机制,同时也为造血干细胞的临床应用提供理论和实验依据。     

猪多能干细胞的研究进展

多能干细胞,如胚胎干细胞（embryonic stem cells,ESCs）、诱导多能干细胞（induced pluripotent stem cells,iPSCs）和成体干细胞（adultstemcells,ASCs）,是一类具有巨大潜能的独特细胞。猪作为试验材料,在遗传、代谢、生理生化及基因序列等方面较小鼠更接近于人类,正逐渐成为人类异种移植和再生医学研究的理想生物学模型。然而,目前对猪多能干细胞种类、来源、特征及机制的有限认识直接阻碍了其相关应用。该文将分别对猪ASCs的研究现状、猪类ESCs的分离培养、猪iPSCs的研究进展、多能干细胞间的联系和展望进行论述,以期为从事该领域研究的科研人员提供参考。     

Current evidence on potential of adipose derived stem cells to enhance bone regeneration and future projection

Injuries to the postnatal skeleton are naturally repaired through successive steps involving specific cell types in a process collectively termed “bone regeneration”. Although complex, bone regeneration occurs through a series of well-orchestrated stages wherein endogenous bone stem cells play a central role. In most situations, bone regeneration is successful; however, there are instances when it fails and creates non-healing injuries or fracture nonunion requiring surgical or therapeutic interventions. Transplantation of adult or mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) defined by the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy (ISCT) as CD105+CD90+CD73+CD45-CD34-CD14orCD11b-CD79αorCD19-HLA-DR- is being investigated as an attractive therapy for bone regeneration throughout the world. MSCs isolated from adipose tissue, adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs), are gaining increasing attention since this is the most abundant source of adult stem cells and the isolation process for ADSCs is straightforward. Currently, there is not a single Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ADSCs product for bone regeneration. Although the safety of ADSCs is established from their usage in numerous clinical trials, the bone-forming potential of ADSCs and MSCs, in general, is highly controversial. Growing evidence suggests that the ISCT defined phenotype may not represent bona fide osteoprogenitors. Transplantation of both ADSCs and the CD105^- sub-population of ADSCs has been reported to induce bone regeneration. Most notably, cells expressing other markers such as CD146, AlphaV, CD200, PDPN, CD164, CXCR4, and PDGFRα have been shown to represent osteogenic sub-population within ADSCs. Amongst other strategies to improve the bone-forming ability of ADSCs, modulation of VEGF, TGF-β1 and BMP signaling pathways of ADSCs has shown promising results. The U.S. FDA reveals that 73% of Investigational New Drug applications for stem cell-based products rely on CD105 expression as the “positive” marker for adult stem cells. A concerted effort involving the scientific community, clinicians, industries, and regulatory bodies to redefine ADSCs using powerful selection markers and strategies to modulate signaling pathways of ADSCs will speed up the therapeutic use of ADSCs for bone regeneration.     

Stem cells: is there a future in plastics?

The concept that ostensibly tissue-specific stem cells can give rise to cells of heterologous lineages has gained support from studies using purified hematopoietic stem cells and sensitive donor-cell tracking methods. The ability to exploit these findings in clinical settings will probably depend on new insights into the mechanisms by which such stem cells or their progeny migrate to sites of organ damage and differentiate to cell types competent to participate in tissue regeneration.     

果蝇干细胞研究进展

本文主要介绍了果蝇五种干细胞,包括生殖干细胞、神经干细胞、造血干细胞、小肠干细胞、肾干细胞及其微环境（niche）的组成成份;简述了五种干细胞系统对应的分子标记;最后重点介绍了调控每种干细胞系统的信号通路。     

Autophagy in stem cells

Autophagy is a highly conserved cellular process by which cytoplasmic components are sequestered in autophagosomes and delivered to lysosomes for degradation. As a major intracellular degradation and recycling pathway, autophagy is crucial for maintaining cellular homeostasis as well as remodeling during normal development, and dysfunctions in autophagy have been associated with a variety of pathologies including cancer, inflammatory bowel disease and neurodegenerative disease. Stem cells are unique in their ability to self-renew and differentiate into various cells in the body, which are important in development, tissue renewal and a range of disease processes. Therefore, it is predicted that autophagy would be crucial for the quality control mechanisms and maintenance of cellular homeostasis in various stem cells given their relatively long life in the organisms. In contrast to the extensive body of knowledge available for somatic cells, the role of autophagy in the maintenance and function of stem cells is only beginning to be revealed as a result of recent studies. Here we provide a comprehensive review of the current understanding of the mechanisms and regulation of autophagy in embryonic stem cells, several tissue stem cells (particularly hematopoietic stem cells), as well as a number of cancer stem cells. We discuss how recent studies of different knockout mice models have defined the roles of various autophagy genes and related pathways in the regulation of the maintenance, expansion and differentiation of various stem cells. We also highlight the many unanswered questions that will help to drive further research at the intersection of autophagy and stem cell biology in the near future.     

Stem cell therapy: an exercise in patience and prudence

In recent times, the epigenetic study of pluripotency based on cellular reprogramming techniques led to the creation of induced pluripotent stem cells. It has come to represent the forefront of a new wave of alternative therapeutic approaches in the field of stem cell therapy. Progress in drug development has saved countless lives, but there are numerous intractable diseases where curative treatment cannot be achieved through pharmacological intervention alone. Consequently, there has been an unfortunate rise in incidences of organ failures, degenerative disorders and cancers, hence novel therapeutic interventions are required. Stem cells have unique self-renewal and multilineage differentiation capabilities that could be harnessed for therapeutic purposes. Although a number of mature differentiated cells have been characterized in vitro, few have been demonstrated to function in a physiologically relevant context. Despite fervent levels of enthusiasm in the field, the reality is that other than the employment of haematopoietic stem cells, many other therapies have yet to be thoroughly proven for their therapeutic benefit and safety in application. This review shall focus on a discussion regarding the current status of stem cell therapy, the issues surrounding it and its future prospects with a general background on the regulatory networks underlying pluripotency.     

Membrane glycolipids in stem cells

Stem cells, such as embryonic stem cells, hematopoietic stem cells, neural stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells, and very small embryonic-like stem cells, are undifferentiated cells that are endowed with a high potential for proliferation and the capacity for self-renewal with retention of pluri/multipotency to differentiate into their progenies. Recently, studies regarding the biological functions of glycolipids and cell surface microdomains (caveolae, lipid rafts, or glycolipid-enriched microdomains) in stem cells are emerging. In this review, we introduce the expression patterns of glycolipids and the functional roles of cell surface microdomains in stem cells.     

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from human fetal stem cells (hFSCs)

Introduction

(1) Human embryonic stem (ES) cells are pluripotent but are difficult to be used for therapy because of immunological, oncological and ethical barriers. (2) Pluripotent cells exist in vivo, i.e., germ cells and epiblast cells but cannot be isolated without sacrificing the developing embryo. (3) Reprogramming to pluripotency is possible from adult cells using ectopic expression of OKSM and other integrative and non-integrative techniques. (4) Hurdles to overcome include i.e stability of the phenotype in relation to epigenetic memory.

Sources of data

We reviewed the literature related to reprogramming, pluripotency and fetal stem cells.

Areas of agreement

(1) Fetal stem cells present some advantageous characteristics compared with their neonatal and postnatal counterparts, with regards to cell size, growth kinetics, and differentiation potential, as well as in vivo tissue repair capacity. (2) Amniotic fluid stem cells are more easily reprogrammed to pluripotency than adult fibroblast. (3) The parental population is heterogeneous and present an intermediate phenotype between ES and adult somatic stem cells, expressing markers of both.

Areas of controversy

(1) It is unclear whether induced pluripotent stem (iPS) derived from amniotic fluid stem cells are fully or partially reprogrammed. (2) Optimal protocols to ensure highest efficiency and phenotype stability remains to be determined. (3) The “level” of reprogramming, fully vs partial, of iPS derived from amniotic fluid stem cells remain to be determined.

Growing points

Banking of fully reprogrammed cells may be important both for (1) autologous and allogenic applications in medicine, and (2) disease modeling.     

Isolation and therapeutic potential of human haemopoietic stem cells

The haemopoietic stem cell (HSC) has long been regarded as an archetypal, tissue specific, stem cell, capable of completely regenerating haemopoiesis after myeloablation. It has proved relatively easy to harvest HSC, from bone marrow or peripheral blood. In turn, isolation of these cells has allowed therapeutic stem cell transplantation protocols to be developed, that capitalise on their prodigious self renewal and proliferative capabilities. Ex vivo approaches have been described to isolate, genetically manipulateand expand pluripotent stem cell subsets. These techniques have been crucial to the development of gene therapy, and may allow adults to enjoy the potential advantages of cord blood transplantation. Recently, huge conceptual changes have occurred in stem cell biology. In particular, the dogma that, in adults, stem cells are exclusively tissue restricted has been questioned and there is great excitement surrounding the potential plasticity of these cells, with the profound implications that this has, for developing novel cellular therapies. Mesenchymal stem cells, multipotent adult progenitor cells and embryonic stem cells are potential sources of cells for transplantation purposes. These cells may be directed toproduce HSC, in vitro and in the future may be used for therapeutic, or drug development, purposes. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

BMP signaling and stem cell regulation

Stem cells play an essential role in cellular specialization and pattern formation during embryogenesis and in tissue regeneration in adults. This is mainly due to a stem cell's ability to replenish itself (self-renewal) and, at the same time, produce differentiated progeny. Realization of these special stem cell features has changed the prospective of the field. However, regulation of stem cell self-renewal and maintenance of its potentiality require a complicated regulatory network of both extracellular cues and intrinsic programs. Understanding how signaling regulates stem cell behavior will shed light on the molecular mechanisms underlying stem cell self-renewal. In this review, we focus on comparing the progress of recent research regarding the roles of the BMP signaling pathway in different stem cell systems, including embryonic stem cells, germline stem cells, hematopoietic stem cells, and intestinal stem cells. We hope this comparison, together with a brief look at other signaling pathways, will bring a more balanced view of BMP signaling in regulation of stem cell properties, and further point to a general principle that self-renewal of stem cells may require a combination of maintenance of proliferation potential, inhibition of apoptosis, and blocking of differentiation.     

干细胞在 1 型糖尿病治疗中的应用研究进展

1型糖尿病（T1D）是一种慢性、多因素自身免疫性疾病,在发病过程中,会不断破坏胰岛β细胞,最终导致胰岛素分泌不足, 严重威胁人类健康。目前,根治T1D的主要方法是胰岛移植,即将移植的胰岛替代体内已被疾病破坏的胰岛细胞,以恢复正常血糖。但 是,胰岛移植供体的缺乏和移植免疫排斥反应,给胰岛移植的临床应用带来巨大挑战。近年来,干细胞治疗为T1D提供了一种新疗法, 成为T1D治疗领域新的研究热点,为该病的治疗提供了新思路。综述不同来源干细胞——胚胎干细胞、诱导多能干细胞和成体干细胞用 于治疗T1D的研究进展。     

Implications for human adipose‐derived stem cells in plastic surgery

Adipose‐derived stem cells (ADSCs) are a subset of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that possess many of the same regenerative properties as other MSCs. However, the ubiquitous presence of ADSCs and their ease of access in human tissue have led to a burgeoning field of research. The plastic surgeon is uniquely positioned to harness this technology because of the relative frequency in which they perform procedures such as liposuction and autologous fat grafting. This review examines the current landscape of ADSC isolation and identification, summarizes the current applications of ADSCs in the field of plastic surgery, discusses the risks associated with their use, current barriers to universal clinical translatability, and surveys the latest research which may help to overcome these obstacles.     

The Drosophila ovary： an active stem cell community

The authors want to change the Cover Caption of Cell Research, Volume 17, Issue 1. The corrected Cover Caption should be＂ Germline stem cells （green dots） at the tip of the Drosophila ovariole generate the germline cells of the egg chambers （large blue circles denote nurse cells）. See page 15-25 for more details.＂     

The Drosophila ovary: an active stem cell community

Only a small number of cells in adult tissues (the stem cells) possess the ability to self-renew at every cell division,while producing differentiating daughter cells to maintain tissue homeostasis for an organism's lifetime.The Drosophilaovary harbors three different types of stem cell populations (germline stem cell (GSC),somatic stem cell (SSC) andescort stem cell (ESC)) located in a simple anatomical structure known as germarium,rendering it one of the best modelsystems for studying stem cell biology due to reliable stem cell identification and available sophisticated genetic toolsfor manipulating gene functions.Particularly,the niche for the GSC is among the first and best studied ones,and studieson the GSC and its niche have made many unique contributions to a better understanding of relationships between stemcells and their niche.So far,both the GSC and the SSC have been shown to be regulated by extrinsic factors originatingfrom their niche and intrinsic factors functioning within.Multiple signaling pathways are required for controlling GSCand SSC self-renewal and differentiation,which provide unique opportunities to investigate how multiple signals fromthe niche are interpreted in the stem cell.Since the Drosophila ovary contains three types of stem cells,it also providesoutstanding opportunities to study how multiple stem cells in a given tissue work collaboratively to contribute to tissuefunction and maintenance.This review highlights recent major advances in studying Drosophila ovarian stem cells andalso discusses future directions and challenges.