title: Chemical approaches to studying stem cell biology.
abstract: Stem cells, including both pluripotent stem cells and multipotent somatic stem cells, hold great potential for interrogating the mechanisms of tissue development, homeostasis and pathology, and for treating numerous devastating diseases. Establishment of in vitro platforms to faithfully maintain and precisely manipulate stem cell fates is essential to understand the basic mechanisms of stem cell biology, and to translate stem cells into regenerative medicine. Chemical approaches have recently provided a number of small molecules that can be used to control cell self-renewal, lineage differentiation, reprogramming and regeneration. These chemical modulators have been proven to be versatile tools for probing stem cell biology and manipulating cell fates toward desired outcomes. Ultimately, this strategy is promising to be a new frontier for drug development aimed at endogenous stem cell modulation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China.
authors.forename: Wenlin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Wanguo
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Sheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ding
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology; D006801:Humans; D020930:MAP Kinase Kinase Kinases / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism; D012038:Regeneration / Q000187:drug effects; D044968:Regenerative Medicine; D054852:Small Molecule Libraries / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*
chemical_list: D054852:Small Molecule Libraries; D020930:MAP Kinase Kinase Kinases