Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Deciphering Fate Decision in Normal
and Cancer Stem Cells: Mathematical Models
and Their Experimental Verification
Gili Hochman and Zvia Agur
1
Introduction
All tissues in the body are derived from stem cells (SCs). SCs are undifferentiated
cells with two essential properties: unlimited replication capacity and the ability to
differentiate into one or more specialized cell types. Embryonic SCs are pluripotent,
meaning that they can give rise to nearly all cell types. Non-embryonic, adult SCs
are found in various tissues and are capable of generating a limited set of tissue-
specific cell types. The first discovered and most extensively studied type of adult
SC is the hematopoietic SC, found in the bone marrow, which can give rise to all
lineages of mature blood cells [
12
,
84
]. Organ-specific SCs have been identified in
many other tissues, including the liver, skin, brain, and mammary gland (see [
19
]
for review).
Adult SCs are responsible for tissue maintenance and renewal throughout
the life of an organism. They replenish cell populations after normal cell death
and following more extensive tissue damage caused by disease or injury. This
regenerative ability has made SCs a key focus of scientific research, much of which
is aimed at developing treatment for a broad variety of diseases [
86
,
87
]. For many
years, hematopoietic SCs have been successfully used to treat leukemia and other
hematological disorders, through bone marrow transplantation [
32
]. Recently, clin-
ical trials have been conducted to evaluate SC-based treatment for cardiovascular
diseases [
20
], neurological diseases [
43
], spinal cord injuries [
93
], and diabetes
[
63
]. Researchers have also attempted to exploit SCs in tissue engineering, aspiring
to replace damaged tissues or cells by transplanting SCs that have been induced in
vitro to differentiate into specific phenotypes [
37
].
G. Hochman (
) Z. Agur
Institute for Medical BioMathematics, 10 Hate'ena St., Bene Ataroth, Israel
e-mail:
gili@imbm.org
;
aguri@imbm.org
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