Abstract
Postnatal stem cells are typically found in niches that provide signaling cues to maintain their self-renewal and multipotency. While stem cell populations may serve distinct purposes within their tissue of origin, understanding the conserved biology of stem cells and their respective niches provides insights to the behavior of these cells during homeostasis and tissue repair. Here, we discuss perivascular niches of two distinct stem cell populations (i.e., hematopoietic stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells) and explore mechanisms that sustain these stem cells postnatally. We highlight work that demonstrates the impact of cellular crosstalk to stem cell self-renewal and maintenance of functional perivascular niches. We also discuss the importance of the crosstalk within the perivascular niche to the biology of stem cells, and describe the regenerative potential of perivascular cells. We postulate that signaling events that establish and/or stabilize the perivascular niche, particularly through the modulation of self-renewing factors, are key to the long-term success of regenerated tissues.
Highlights
Physiological stem cells enable tissue regeneration and repair
As stem cell factor (SCF) is a ligand for c-Kit, and inhibiting c-Kit resulted in the loss of hematopoietic progenitor cells, these results suggested that SCF is required for postnatal hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) maintenance (Zsebo et al, 1990; Ogawa et al, 1991; Ding et al, 2012)
When STRO1-positive bone marrow stem cells (BMSC) and DPSC were analyzed, they showed expression of pericyte markers (α-smooth muscle actin, CD146) but not von Willebrand factor, a marker for platelets and endothelial cells (Shi and Gronthos, 2003). These findings suggested that these stem cell populations might reside in a perivascular niche and/or have the capacity to differentiate into other cell populations, such as pericytes
Summary
Physiological stem cells enable tissue regeneration and repair. Successful regeneration of living tissues and/or organs that integrate functionally and properly within the host could improve the quality of life of patients. We highlight the role of postnatal stem cell populations in tissue repair and regeneration, with focus on their microenvironment (i.e., their niche). Stem cells are maintained in specialized niches, where they are relatively quiescent until external signals (e.g., wound) disrupt this equilibrium and drive their fate through downstream lineages that result in fully differentiated cells. Understanding the biology of these stem cell niches and mechanisms that drive stem cell fate can provide insights into potential signaling targets that can be exploited to regenerate functional tissues
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