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A hypothesis for an embryonic origin of pluripotent Oct-4+ stem cells in adult bone marrow and other tissues

Leukemia volume 21, pages 860–867 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Accumulating evidence demonstrates that adult tissues contain a population of stem cells that express early developmental markers such as stage-specific embryonic antigen and transcription factors Oct-4 and Nanog. These are the markers characteristic for embryonic stem cells, epiblast stem cells and primordial germ cells. The presence of these stem cells in adult tissues including bone marrow, epidermis, bronchial epithelium, myocardium, pancreas and testes supports the concept that adult tissues contain some population of pluripotent stem cells that is deposited in embryogenesis during early gastrulation. In this review we will discuss these data and present a hypothesis that these cells could be direct descendants of the germ lineage. The germ lineage in order to pass genes on to the next generations creates soma and thus becomes a ‘mother lineage’ for all somatic cell lineages present in the adult body.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NIH Grant R01 CA106281-01 to MZR.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stem Cell Biology Program at James Graham Brown Cancer Center, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA

    M Z Ratajczak, J Ratajczak & M Kucia

  2. Department of Physiology, Pomeranian Medical University, Szczecin, Poland

    B Machalinski

  3. Third Department of Cardiology, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland

    W Wojakowski

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  1. M Z Ratajczak
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  2. B Machalinski
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Correspondence to M Z Ratajczak.

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Ratajczak, M., Machalinski, B., Wojakowski, W. et al. A hypothesis for an embryonic origin of pluripotent Oct-4+ stem cells in adult bone marrow and other tissues. Leukemia 21, 860–867 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2404630

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