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大学共同利用機関法人 自然科学研究機構

基礎生物学研究所

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Mouse germ line stem cells undergo rapid and stochastic turnover.

Authors Klein AM, Nakagawa T, Ichikawa R, Yoshida S, Simons BD.
Journal Cell Stem Cell. 2010 Aug 6;7(2):214-24.
Link PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20682447)

基礎生物学研究所生殖細胞研究部門とUniversity of Cambridge, UKなどとの共同研究成果です。

Abstract

In cycling tissues, adult stem cells may be lost and subsequently replaced to ensure homeostasis. To examine the frequency of stem cell replacement, we analyzed the population dynamics of labeled stem cells in steady-state mouse spermatogenesis. Our results show that spermatogenic stem cells are continuously replaced, on average within 2 weeks. The analysis exposes a simple and robust scaling behavior of clone size distributions that shows stem cell replacement to be stochastic, meaning that stem cells are equipotent and equally likely to be lost or to multiply to replace their neighbors, irrespective of their clonal history. The surprisingly fast rate of stem cell replacement is supported experimentally by 3D clone morphology and by live-imaging of spermatogonial migration. These results suggest that short-lived stem cells may be a common feature of mammalian stem cell systems and reveal a natural mechanism for matching the rates of cell proliferation and loss in tissue.

国際共同研究成果