Posts Tagged ‘Kenneth Birnbaum’
">
Arabidopsis thaliana in varying states of growth. (Credit: INRA 2003)
NYU (US)—A quality thought only to exist in stem cells, may occur in ordinary cells, too. Findings by researchers at New York University’s Center for Genomics and Systems Biology and Utrecht University in the Netherlands indicate that some roles of stem cells in organ regeneration may be shared by other types of cells.
Stem cells have two known fundamental properties: They can renew themselves and they can give rise to specialized cells. These traits make them the engines for regeneration, creating new cells to replace lost organs and tissue. These phenomena are especially evident in plants, which continually re-grow their branches and roots. The center of stem cell activity is a stem cell niche, where stem cells are directed to perform these renewal and regeneration functions. However, it’s unclear how significant the stem cell niche is to building and rebuilding of organs. Continue…
