Siggins Robert W, Zhang Ping, Welsh David, Lecapitaine Nicole J, Nelson Steve
Int J Clin Exp Med. 2008;1(1):2-21. Epub 2008 Jan 20.
Stem cells possess the potential to cure a myriad of ailments ranging from congenital diseases to illnesses acquired through the physiological process of aging. In the adult, these cells are extremely rare and often difficult to isolate in numbers sufficient to apply to medical treatment. Ex vivo expansion of these cells will be required for most meaningful interventions. The discovery of stem/progenitor cell inversion offers a new avenue for obtaining sufficient numbers of stem cells. Adult progenitor cells are much more common than quiescent stem cells and can be isolated with minimal interventions; therefore, inversion of progenitors to stem cells may become a feasible approach for therapeutic purposes. Stem cells are known to possess few mitochondria, and mitochondrial biogenesis is required for stem cell differentiation. The microtubule cytoskeleton is a major regulator for mitochondrial biogenesis. Investigations in the area of controlling cell differentiation and inducing phenotypic inversion, possibly through manipulation of mitochondrial biogenesis, may contribute to stem cell-based therapies.
干细胞具有治愈无数疾病的潜力，这些疾病涵盖从先天性疾病到因衰老生理过程而患上的疾病。在成年人中，这些细胞极其稀少，往往难以分离出足以用于医学治疗的数量。对于大多数有意义的干预措施而言，需要对这些细胞进行体外扩增。干细胞/祖细胞转化的发现为获得足够数量的干细胞提供了一条新途径。成体祖细胞比静止干细胞更为常见，并且只需极少的干预就能分离出来；因此，将祖细胞转化为干细胞可能成为一种可行的治疗方法。已知干细胞的线粒体很少，而干细胞分化需要线粒体生物合成。微管细胞骨架是线粒体生物合成的主要调节因子。在控制细胞分化和诱导表型转化领域进行研究，可能通过操纵线粒体生物合成来实现，这可能有助于基于干细胞的治疗。
