Plasticity of tissue stem cells

In the early stages of embryonic development, cells have the capability of dividing indefinitely and then differentiating into any type of cell in the body. Recent studies have revealed that much of this remarkable developmental potential of stem cells is retained by small populations of cells within most tissues in the adult. Intercellular signals that control the proliferation, differentiation and survival of tissue stem cells in their niches are being identified and include a diverse array of morphogens, cytokines, chemokines and cell adhesion molecules. Adult tissue stem cells, moreover, can also differentiate into developmentally unrelated cell types, such as nerve stem cells into blood cells. Currently, we can only speculate about the mechanisms involved in such dramatic changes in cell fate. For example, the emergence of, say, hematopoietic stem cells from brain neurospheres could involve either transdifferentiation (brain-->blood) or dedifferentiation (brain-->pluripotent cells), or by the actions of rare, but residual pluripotent stem cells. This issue is central to understanding the molecular basis of commitment and lies at the heart of debates about plasticity and the reversibility of developmental restriction.