Life Sciences Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
Protein Cell. 2012 Apr;3(4):291-304. doi: 10.1007/s13238-012-2919-3. Epub 2012 May 2.
Stem cells and progenitor cells are the cells of origin for multi-cellular organisms and organs. They play key roles during development and their dysregulation gives rise to human diseases such as cancer. The recent development of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology which converts somatic cells to stem-like cells holds great promise for regenerative medicine. Nevertheless, the understanding of proliferation, differentiation, and self-renewal of stem cells and organ-specific progenitor cells is far from clear. Recently, the Hippo pathway was demonstrated to play important roles in these processes. The Hippo pathway is a newly established signaling pathway with critical functions in limiting organ size and suppressing tumorigenesis. This pathway was first found to inhibit cell proliferation and promote apoptosis, therefore regulating cell number and organ size in both Drosophila and mammals. However, in several organs, disturbance of the pathway leads to specific expansion of the progenitor cell compartment and manipulation of the pathway in embryonic stem cells strongly affects their self-renewal and differentiation. In this review, we summarize current observations on roles of the Hippo pathway in different types of stem cells and discuss how these findings changed our view on the Hippo pathway in organ development and tumorigenesis.
干细胞和祖细胞是多细胞生物和器官的起源细胞。它们在发育过程中发挥着关键作用，其失调会导致人类疾病，如癌症。最近诱导多能干细胞（iPSC）技术的发展将体细胞转化为类干细胞，为再生医学带来了巨大的希望。然而，对于干细胞和器官特异性祖细胞的增殖、分化和自我更新的理解还远远不清楚。最近，Hippo 通路被证明在这些过程中发挥着重要作用。Hippo 通路是一种新发现的信号通路，在限制器官大小和抑制肿瘤发生方面具有关键作用。该通路最初被发现可抑制细胞增殖并促进细胞凋亡，从而调节果蝇和哺乳动物中细胞数量和器官大小。然而，在一些器官中，该通路的失调会导致祖细胞区室的特异性扩张，并且对胚胎干细胞中该通路的操作强烈影响其自我更新和分化。在这篇综述中，我们总结了 Hippo 通路在不同类型干细胞中的作用的最新观察结果，并讨论了这些发现如何改变我们对 Hippo 通路在器官发育和肿瘤发生中的作用的看法。
