This survey on the "state-of-the-science" of stem cell biology explains the origins of stem cells and describes how they function, how they can cause illness, and how they might be employed to cure or ameliorate disease. In particular, the authors discuss the roles of stem cells in development and organogenesis, in normal tissue turnover, in the repair response to injury, and in carcinogenesis.

Klappentext

The power of stem cells for tissue development, regeneration, and renewal has been well known by embryologists and developmental biologists for many years. Those presently active in research in the stem cell field owe much to previous work by embryologists and cancer researchers for their insights into what stem cells can do. In the last 4- 5 years, the rapid expansion of the concept of adult tissue stem cells as pluripotent progenitors for various tissues has led to an even greater appreciation of the power of stem cells. The demonstration that both embryonic and adult tissue stem cells have the ability to produce progenitor cells for tissue renewal has opened vast possibilities for treatment of congenital deficiency diseases as well as for regeneration of damaged tissues. Older concepts of determination leading to loss of potential during differentiation of adult tissues are being replaced by newer ideas that cells with multiple potential exist in different forms in various adult organs and that cells thought to be restricted to differentiation to one cell type may be able to "transdifferentiate" into other tissue cell types. Thus, the concept of "embryonic rests" in adult tissues, hypothesized to be the cellular origin of cancer by Durante and Conheim in the 1870s, now can be expanded to include survival of pluripotential embryonic-like stem cells in adult tissues.

Inhalt

Stem Cells: What Are They? Where Do They Come From? Why Are They Here? When Do They Go Wrong? Where Are They Going? Stewart Sell Stem Cells from Early Mammalian Embryos: Common Themes and Significant Differences Virginia E. Papaioannou and Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis Embryonic Stem Cells: Isolation and Application of Pluripotent Cells from the Pregastrulation Mammalian Embryo Joy Rathjen and Peter David Rathjen From Stem Cells to Functional Tissue Architecture: What Are the Signals and How Are They Processed? Sui Huang and Donald E. Ingber Germline Stem Cells Haifan Lin Stem Cells and Cloning Ian Wilmut and Lesley Ann Paterson Genomic Imprinting in Mouse Embryonic Stem and Germ Cells Jeffrey R. Mann and Piroska E. Szabó Stem Cells in Amphibian Regeneration David L. Stocum Stem Cells in Dermal Wound Healing William J. Lindblad Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells James E. Dennis and Arnold I. Caplan Normal and Leukemic Hematopoietic Stem Cells and Lineages Ernest A. McCulloch Developmental Origin of Murine Hematopoietic Stem Cells Lorraine Robb and Kyunghee Choi Stromal Support of Hematopoiesis Pierre Charbord Hematopoietic Stem Cells: Identification, Characterization, and Assays Ian Ponting, Yi Zhao and W. French Anderson Hematopoietic Stem Cells in Leukemia and Lymphoma Stephen M. Baird Neurons, Stem Cells, and Potential Therapies Fiona C. Mansergh, Michael A. Wride, and Derrick E. Rancourt Neural Stem Cells: From In Vivo to In Vitro and Back Again-Practical Aspects Michael A. Marconi, Kook I. Park, Yang D. Teng, Jitka Ourednik, Vaclav Ourednik, Rosanne M. Taylor, Aleksandra E. Marciniak, Marcel M. Daadi, Heather L. Rose, Erin B. Lavik, Robert Langer, Kurtis I. Auguste, Mahesh Lachyankar, Curt R. Freed, D.Eugene Redmond, Richard L. Sidman, and Evan Y. Snyder Molecular Genetic Approaches in the Study of Retinal Progenitor Cells and Stem Cells Till Marquardt and Peter Gruss Endothelial Progenitor Cells Takayuki Asahara and Jeffrey M. Isner Development of the Cardiovascular System in Embryoid Bodies Derived from Embryonic Stem Cells Heinrich Sauer, Maria Wartenberg, Agapios Sachinidis, and Jürgen Hescheler Transcription Factors, Growth Factors, and Signal Cascades Capable of Priming Cardiogenesis Agapios Sachinidis, Heinrich Sauer, Maria Wartenberg, and Jürgen Hescheler Strategies Using Cell Therapy to Induce Cardiomyocyte Regeneration in Adults with Heart Disease Silviu Itescu Generation and Stem Cell Repair of Cardiac Tissues Kathyjo A. Jackson and Margaret A. Goodell Stem Cells in Kidney Morphogenesis Emma M. A. Ball and Gail P. Risbridger Nephroblastoma: A Metanephric Caricature Alan O. Perantoni Stem Cells in Nonmelanoma Skin Cancer Wendy C. Weinberg and Stuart H. Yuspa The Stem Cell Plasticity of Aggressive Melanoma Tumor Cells Mary J. C. Hendrix, Elisabeth A. Seftor, Paul S. Meltzer, Angela R. Hess, Lynn M. Gruman, Brian J. Nickoloff, Lucio Miele, Don D. Sheriff, Gina C. Schatteman, Mario A. Bourdon, and Richard E. B. Seftor Stem Cells in Glandular Organs Karin Williams and Simon W. Hayward Gastrointestinal Stem Cells: Proliferation Kinetics and Differentiation Hierarchies Sherif M. Karam Stem Cell Origin of Cell Lineages, Proliferative Units, and Cancer in the Gastrointestinal Tract Mairi Brittan and Nicholas A. Wright Specification of Liver from Embryonic Endoderm Hideyuki Yoshitomi and Kenneth S. Zaret Animal Models for Assessing the Contribution of Stem Cells to Liver Development Douglas C. Hixson Normal Liver