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Somatic plasticity of neural stem cells: Fact or fancy?
Author(s) -
Greco Beatrice,
Recht Lawrence
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of cellular biochemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.028
H-Index - 165
eISSN - 1097-4644
pISSN - 0730-2312
DOI - 10.1002/jcb.10314
Subject(s) - somatic cell , embryonic stem cell , biology , stem cell , neuroscience , neural stem cell , adult stem cell , microbiology and biotechnology , genetics , gene
Several studies have described the potential for embryonic and adult neural stem cells to differentiate into non‐neural cells such as muscle and blood, tissues that are derived from non‐neuroectodermal germ layers. This raised the exciting possibility that these cells possessed a broader range of differentiation potential than originally thought and raised interesting prospects for possible transplantation utilization. However, a number of recent reports have raised questions about whether the phenomena observed actually represented true somatic plasticity. In this review, we critically analyze these studies with the aim of providing some criteria by which future studies that address this important problem may be evaluated. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.