Stem cell plasticity. Plasticity of epithelial stem cells in tissue regeneration.

Growth Kinetics, Characterization, and Plasticity of Human Menstrual Blood Stem Cells

One of the readily available sources of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is menstrual blood-derived stem cells (Men-SCs), which exhibit characteristics similar to other types of MSCs. This study was performed to determine the growth kinetics, plasticity, and characterization of Men-SCs in women. During spring 2014 in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz, menstrual blood (5 mL) was obtained from 10 ...

Reprogramming by cytosolic extract of human embryonic stem cells improves dopaminergic differentiation potential of human adipose tissue-derived stem cells

The extract of pluripotent stem cells induces dedifferentiation of somatic cells with restricted plasticity. In this study, we used the extract of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) to dedifferentiate adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ADSCs) and examined the impact of this reprogramming event on dopaminergic differentiation of the cells. For this purpose, cytoplasmic extract of ESCs was prepare...

Amniotic Fluid Stem Cells and Their Application in Cell-Based Tissue Regeneration

High neuronal/astroglial differentiation plasticity of adult rat hippocampal neural stem/progenitor cells in response to the effects of embryonic and adult cerebrospinal fluids

Hippocampal neural stem/progenitor cells (hipp-NS/PCs) of the adult mammalian brain are important sources of neuronal and gial cell production. In this study, the main goal is to investigate the plasticity of these cells in neuronal/astroglial differentiations. To this end, the differentiation of the hipp-NS/PCs isolated from 3-month-old Wistar rats was investigated in response to the embryonic...

Cell-State Transitions Regulated by SLUG Are Critical for Tissue Regeneration and Tumor Initiation

Perturbations in stem cell activity and differentiation can lead to developmental defects and cancer. We use an approach involving a quantitative model of cell-state transitions in vitro to gain insights into how SLUG/SNAI2, a key developmental transcription factor, modulates mammary epithelial stem cell activity and differentiation in vivo. In the absence of SLUG, stem cells fail to transition...