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Review
. 2015 Jun 8;209(5):629-31.
doi: 10.1083/jcb.201503129.

Cell biology: More than skin deep

Affiliations
Review

Cell biology: More than skin deep

Elaine Fuchs. J Cell Biol. .

Abstract

In studying how stem cells make and maintain tissues, nearly every chapter of a cell biology textbook is of interest. The field even allows us to venture where no chapters have yet been written. In studying this basic problem, we are continually bombarded by nature's surprises and challenges.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Stem cells and their niche. The hair follicle is a prominent example of how cell biology can help understand tissue homeostasis. Each hair follicle requires a niche of stem cells to undergo cyclical bouts of hair growth. The schematic (left) depicts the niche in its resting (nontissue generating) and activated (tissue generating) stages. The arrows indicate communication signals within the niche (color-coded according to the cells that are transmitting the signal and pointing to the recipient cells). Quiescent stem cells (green) receive inhibitory signals from their differentiated progeny (red). During the resting phase, crosstalk between the mesenchymal cells (purple) and “primed” stem cells (blue) builds up the threshold of activating signals that overpower the inhibitory signals to launch the tissue-generating phase. The primed stem cells begin to make short-lived progeny (orange). In the early stages of tissue growth, these stem cell progeny act as a transient signaling center of the niche to fuel tissue growth. For more details, see Greco et al. (2009) and Hsu et al. (2014). The immunofluorescence image (right) marks the nuclei of the skin in blue (DAPI), the inner niche layer in red (keratin 6), and a subset of stem cells that received a transgene expressing green fluorescent protein under the control of an enhancer that is active only in quiescent hair follicle stem cells (Adam et al., 2015).

References

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