November 18, 2011
Stem cell "niche"
Xie T, Spradling AC
A niche maintaining germ line stem cells in the Drosophila ovary.
Science 290: 328-330, 2000
Before you read this paper
Stem cells have abilities to self-renew and to produce daughter cells which give rise to terminal differentiated cells. Balancing these two abilities and maintenance of stem cell itself are critical for tissue homeostasis. During regeneration and in normal tissues, stem cells reside and function only in a “restricted area” of the tissues. The “restricted area” is thought to be a specialized microenvironment, called as “stem cell niche”, which is required to maintain and control the stem cell function. Before reading this paper, please try to define characteristics of a “ stem cell niche” by yourself, and design experiments to identify the stem cell niche according to your definition. And then, please try to consider limitations of the methods of this paper.
