title: Epidermal stem cells have the potential to assist in healing damaged tissues.
abstract: Homeostasis of continuously renewing tissues, such as the epidermis, is maintained by somatic undifferentiated, self-renewing stem cells, which are thought to persist throughout life. Through a series of labeling experiments, we previously showed that stem cells from mouse skin did not divide often, but they did divide at a steady rate in vivo. Using our recently redefined sorting method, we isolated epidermal stem and transit amplifying (TA) cells from mouse skin. When injected into a developing blastocyst or into damaged tissues, the stem cells, but not the TA cells, could participate in the formation of new tissues. We hypothesize that all tissues contain reserved undifferentiated stem cells that are primed to react if needed. These reserve stem cells could restore the tissue in which they reside or they could be called upon to help restore another tissue that was severely damage.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Caver College of Medicine, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52240, USA. jackie-bickenbach@uiowa.edu
authors.forename: Jackie R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Bickenbach
authors.forename: Matthew M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Stern
authors.forename: Katie L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Grinnell
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Manuel
authors.forename: Sathivel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chinnathambi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002469:Cell Separation; D000078404:Epidermal Cells; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D014945:Wound Healing / Q000502:physiology*