Stem cells as probabilistic self-producing entities |
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Authors: | Ramalho-Santos Miguel |
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Affiliation: | Program in Developmental and Stem Cell Biology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco CA 94143-0540, USA. mrsantos@itsa.ucsf.edu |
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Abstract: | Stem cells have the capacity both to self-renew and to give rise to differentiated progeny, and are vital to the organization of multicellular organisms. Stem cells raise a number of fundamental questions regarding lineage restriction and cellular differentiation, and they hold enormous promise for cell-based therapies. Here I propose a theoretical framework for stem cell biology based on the concepts of autopoiesis (self-production) and complementarity. I argue that stem cells are pivotal in the self-production of the organism and that we need complementary approaches to understand their probabilistic behavior. I discuss how this framework generates testable hypotheses regarding stem-cell functions. |
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