title: Stem cells as probabilistic self-producing entities.
abstract: Stem cells have the capacity both to self-renew and to give rise to differentiated progeny, and are vital to the organization of multicellular organisms. Stem cells raise a number of fundamental questions regarding lineage restriction and cellular differentiation, and they hold enormous promise for cell-based therapies. Here I propose a theoretical framework for stem cell biology based on the concepts of autopoiesis (self-production) and complementarity. I argue that stem cells are pivotal in the self-production of the organism and that we need complementary approaches to understand their probabilistic behavior. I discuss how this framework generates testable hypotheses regarding stem-cell functions.
authors.affiliation: Program in Developmental and Stem Cell Biology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco CA 94143-0540, USA. mrsantos@itsa.ucsf.edu
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ramalho-Santos
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002455:Cell Division; D015509:Developmental Biology / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*