Directing neural stem cells (NSCs) differentiation towards oligodendroglial cell lineage is a crucial step in the endeavor of developing cell replacement-based therapies for demyelinating diseases. Evaluation of NSCs differentiation is mostly performed by methodologi ...

The presence of adult functional mammary epithelial stem/progenitor cells in mammary gland and recent identification of enriched fraction of transplantable mammary stem cells (MaSCs) through specific cell surface markers have revolutionized the study to delineate the role of m ...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small molecules, which regulate cellular function by mediating transient translational repression. Recent studies have demonstrated a role for miRNAs as important modulators of stem cell function that can be transferred from cell to cell through gap j ...

Musculoskeletal disorders, as non-healing fractures and large bone defects, articular cartilage and subchondral bone injuries, often result in lifelong chronic pain and compromised quality of life. Although generally a natural process, failure of large bone defects to heal such as a ...

The stromal compartment of adipose tissue harbors mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) (also called stromal stem cells) that display extensive proliferative capacity and multilineage differentiation potential. Such cells offer a practical avenue of generating patient-matched t ...

Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) have been used for allogeneic application in tissue engineering but have certain drawbacks. Therefore, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) derived from other adult tissue sources have been considered as an alternative. The human umb ...

Collection and banking of umbilical cord blood can provide a virtually unlimited source of ethnically diverse stem cell donors. It can be used in place of bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells for hematologic transplants as well as in a variety of regenerative medicine applications. In this ...

Isolation of prostate epithelial cells with stem/progenitor characteristics may enable further evaluation of the hierarchy of prostate glandular development and malignant transformation. Prostate epithelial cells capable of sphere formation in semisolid cultures po ...

The successful isolation and ex vivo expansion of resident cardiac stem/progenitor cells from human heart biopsies has allowed us to study their biological characteristics and their applications in therapeutic approaches for the repair of ischemic/infarcted heart, the prepar ...

To date, there is no suitable in vitro model to study human adult cardiac cell biology. Here, we describe a method for efficient isolation and expansion of human cardiomyocyte progenitor cells (CMPCs) from cardiac surgical waste or, alternatively, from fetal heart tissue. Additionally, we pr ...

Human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells offer great hope for studies of pathogenic mechanisms of disease and cell-based therapies. One powerful approach to manipulate the behaviors of human stem cells and their progenies is through microRNAs (miRNAs), a class of sma ...

Aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) can be used as a marker to isolate, propagate, and track normal and cancerous human colon stem cells. To determine their tumorigenic potential, tissues obtained from proximal (normal counterpart) and distal (cancerous) colon of colon cancer patients are i ...

Cell therapy is an emerging therapeutic strategy aimed at replacing or repairing severely damaged tissues with cultured cells. Specifically, ocular burns cause depletion of limbal stem cells, which leads to corneal opacification and visual loss. Corneal stem cells are segregated in t ...

Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) were first identified by Ashara et al. in 1997 (Asahara et al. Science 275:964–967, 1997) and were thought to contribute to angiogenesis and vasculogenesis. Since their discovery, circulating levels of EPCs were found to serve as biomarkers as low levels c ...

Human embryonic stem cell (hESc) lines are likely the in vitro equivalent of the pluripotent epiblast. hESc express high levels of the extracellular matrix (ECM) laminin integrin receptor α6β1 and consequently can adhere robustly and be propagated in an undifferentiated state on tissue ...

The clinical potential of therapeutic quantities of primary hematopoietic cells, either unmodified or altered via genetic modification, has stimulated the search for techniques that allow the production of large numbers of hematopoietic precursors, more primitive progeni ...

Epithelial stem cells are typically multipotential and are likely the cell of origin of epithelial cancers. Tracing the expansion of a single stem cell’s progeny, identifying and characterizing these cells in human tissue has proven difficult. Invasive labeling studies, which have led ...

The separation of two populations of cells—primitive endoderm and epiblast—within the inner cell mass (ICM) of the mammalian blastocyst is a crucial event during preimplantation development. However, many aspects of this process are still not very well understood. Recently, the iden ...

Local tissue stem cells are known to exist in mammalian lungs but their role in epithelial maintenance remains unclear. We therefore developed murine aggregation chimera and wholemount imaging techniques to assess the contribution of these cells to lung homeostasis and repair. In this c ...

The epidermis and its appendages, the hair follicle and sebaceous gland, have the capacity to constantly regenerate throughout adult life. Postnatal hair follicles undergo a cyclic mode of tissue homeostasis, defined by periods of growth, degeneration, and rest. A multipotent popula ...