Editor's Summary
20 September 2007
Stem cells make their mark
Adult stem cells are an attractive alternative to embryonic stem cells for therapeutic use. As yet there is no standard method for obtaining such cells from adults and priming them to form different tissues, but a new system that generates large numbers of stem cells from the adult testicle shows promise. It makes use of a novel marker, an orphan receptor known as GPR125, found on the surface of spermatogonial stem cells. The use of specialized feeder cells to support stem cell growth allows stem cells once destined for spermatogenesis to become multipotent. This work also provides clues as to the minimal requirements for multipotency in adult cells.
Letter: Generation of functional multipotent adult stem cells from GPR125+ germline progenitors
Marco Seandel, Daylon James, Sergey V. Shmelkov, Ilaria Falciatori, Jiyeon Kim, Sai Chavala, Douglas S. Scherr, Fan Zhang, Richard Torres, Nicholas W. Gale, George D. Yancopoulos, Andrew Murphy, David M. Valenzuela, Robin M. Hobbs, Pier Paolo Pandolfi & Shahin Rafii
doi:10.1038/nature06129
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,151K) | Supplementary information
