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(Re)defining stem cells
Author(s) -
Shostak Stanley
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
bioessays
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.175
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1521-1878
pISSN - 0265-9247
DOI - 10.1002/bies.20376
Subject(s) - stem cell , totipotent , embryonic stem cell , biology , adult stem cell , microbiology and biotechnology , confusion , multipotent stem cell , environmental ethics , progenitor cell , genetics , psychology , psychoanalysis , gene , philosophy
Stem‐cell nomenclature is in a muddle! So‐called stem cells may be self‐renewing or emergent, oligopotent (uni‐ and multipotent) or pluri‐ and totipotent, cells with perpetual embryonic features or cells that have changed irreversibly. Ambiguity probably seeped into stem cells from common usage, flukes in biology's history beginning with Weismann's divide between germ and soma and Haeckel's biogenic law and ending with contemporary issues over the therapeutic efficacy of adult versus embryonic cells. Confusion centers on tissue dynamics, whether stem cells are properly members of emerging or steady‐state populations. Clarity might yet be achieved by codifying differences between cells in emergent populations, including embryonic stem and embryonic germ (ES and EG) cells in tissue culture as opposed to self‐renewing (SR) cells in steady‐state populations. BioEssays 28: 301–308, 2006. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.