Existence of reserve quiescent stem cells in adults, from amphibians to humans

Abstract

Several theories have been proposed to explain the phenomenon of tissue restoration in amphibians and higher order animals. These theories include dedifferentiation of damaged tissues, transdifferentiation of lineage-committed stem cells, and activation of quiescent stem cells. Young and colleagues demonstrated that connective tissues throughout the body contain multiple populations of quiescent lineage-committed progenitor stem cells and lineage-uncommitted pluripotent stem cells. Subsequent cloning and cell sorting studies identified quiescent lineage-uncommitted pluripotent mesenchymal stem cells, capable of forming any mesodermal cell type, and pluripotent epiblastic-like stem cells, capable of forming any somatic cell type. Based on their studies, they propose at least 11 categories of quiescent reserve stem cells resident within postnatal animals, including humans. These categories are pluripotent epiblastic-like stem cells, pluripotent ectodermal stem cells, pluripotent epidermal stem cells, pluripotent neuronal stem cells, pluripotent neural crest stem cells, pluripotent mesenchymal (mesodermal) stem cells, pluripotent endodermal stem cells, multipotent progenitor stem cells, tripotent progenitor stem cells, bipotent progenitor stem cells, and unipotent progenitor stem cells. Thus, activation of quiescent reserve stem cells, i.e., lineage-committed progenitor stem cells and lineage-uncommitted pluripotent stem cells, resident within the connective tissues could provide for the continual maintenance and repair of the postnatal organism after birth.