Walker M R, Patel K K, Stappenbeck T S
Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
J Pathol. 2009 Jan;217(2):169-80. doi: 10.1002/path.2474.
Virtually every tissue of the adult organism maintains a population of putatively slowly-cycling stem cells that maintain homeostasis of the tissue and respond to injury when challenged. These cells are regulated and supported by the surrounding microenvironment, referred to as the stem cell 'niche'. The niche includes all cellular and non-cellular components that interact in order to control the adult stem cell, and these interactions can often be broken down into one of two major mechanistic categories--physical contact and diffusible factors. The niche has been studied directly and indirectly in a number of adult stem cell systems. Herein, we will first focus on the most well-understood niches supporting the germline stem cells in the lower organisms Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster before concentrating on the more complex, less well-understood mammalian niches supporting the neural, epidermal, haematopoietic and intestinal stem cells.
成年生物体的几乎每个组织都维持着一群假定的慢循环干细胞，这些干细胞维持组织的稳态，并在受到挑战时对损伤做出反应。这些细胞受到周围微环境的调节和支持，该微环境被称为干细胞“生态位”。生态位包括所有相互作用以控制成体干细胞的细胞和非细胞成分，这些相互作用通常可分为两种主要机制类别之一——物理接触和可扩散因子。在许多成体干细胞系统中，已经直接或间接地研究了生态位。在此，我们将首先关注在低等生物秀丽隐杆线虫和黑腹果蝇中支持生殖系干细胞的最广为人知的生态位，然后再集中讨论支持神经、表皮、造血和肠道干细胞的更复杂、了解较少的哺乳动物生态位。
