A Special Issue on Stem Cell Research

Stem cells possess the remarkable ability of extensive self-renewal and differentiation into specific cell lineages, and they play essential roles in development and adult tissue homeostasis.

Due to their critical importance in normal physiology and the promise for use in regenerative medicine to treat a variety of diseases, stem cells have attracted extensive research interest in recent years.

As China's premium international journal with a broad scope in cell and molecular biology, Cell Research has witnessed more and more submissions on stem cell research. Indeed, along with the traditional strengths of the journal in molecular immunology, cancer biology, and plant molecular physiology, stem cell research has gradually and naturally evolved into a new growth point of Cell Research.

Reflecting the growing interest of both our readers and authors in this exciting and expanding field, we are pleased to present this Special Issue on Stem Cell Research.

The life of a stem cell in vivo is governed by both its own intrinsic properties and the communications with its microenvironment (the stem cell niche). Dániel Kirilly and Ting Xie review the stem cell community in Drosophila ovary, which has served as an excellent model system to study fundamental aspects of stem cell biology, including regulation of stem cells by niche signals; while Scheffer Tseng and colleagues update us on studies of niche regulation of a unique group of stem cells in the eye, the corneal epithelial stem cells.

In a Research Article, Jinhua Wen, Lingsong Li, and coworkers used neural stem cells differentiated from mouse embryonic stem cells as a model system to study the effect of putative niche signals, and they report mechanistic insights on the collaborative actions of two such signals, bFGF and VEGF.....

Whole article: www.nature.com

Related articles

Scientists find new stemcell source - Scientists in Scotland say they've discovered a way to harvest stem cells from non-viable embryos (22.6.2007)

Reversing cancer cells to normal cells - A Northwestern University scientist describes new research that used an innovative experimental approach to provide unique insights into how scientists can change human metastatic melanoma cells back to normal-like skin cells -- by exposing the tumor cells to the embryonic microenvironment of human embryonic stem cells, the zebra fish and the chick embryo (30.4.2007)

British researchers grow heart tissue from stem cells - British medical researchers have grown human heart tissue from stem cells in a breakthrough reported Monday that offers a possible solution to a shortage of donors for heart transplants (4.4.2007)

Stem Cell Therapy Shows Promise For Rescuing Deteriorating Vision - For the millions of Americans whose vision is slowly ebbing due to degenerative diseases of the eye, the lowly neural progenitor cell may be riding to the rescue (30.3.2007)

Mouse tests show stem cells treat brain disease - Human stem cells taken from both embryos and fetuses delayed a fatal brain and nerve disease in mice, moving throughout the brain to take on the jobs of damaged neurons, scientists reported on Sunday (15.3.2007)