Department of Clinical Application, Center for iPS cell Research and Application (CiRA), Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
J Clin Invest. 2013 May;123(5):1881-6. doi: 10.1172/JCI66022. Epub 2013 May 1.
Recent advances in developmental biology have greatly expanded our understanding of progenitor cell programming and the fundamental roles that Sox9 plays in liver and pancreas organogenesis. In the last 2 years, several studies have dissected the behavior of the Sox9+ duct cells in adult organs, but conflicting results have left unanswered the long-standing question of whether physiologically functioning progenitors exist in adult liver and pancreas. On the other hand, increasing evidence suggests that duct cells function as progenitors in the tissue restoration process after injury, during which embryonic programs are sometimes reactivated. This article discusses the role of Sox9 in programming liver and pancreatic progenitors as well as controversies in the field.
近年来，发育生物学的进展极大地拓展了我们对祖细胞编程的理解，以及 Sox9 在肝脏和胰腺器官发生中的基本作用。在过去的 2 年中，有几项研究剖析了 Sox9+胆管细胞在成年器官中的行为，但相互矛盾的结果仍未回答长期存在的问题，即成年肝脏和胰腺中是否存在生理功能的祖细胞。另一方面，越来越多的证据表明，胆管细胞在损伤后的组织修复过程中发挥祖细胞的作用，在此过程中，胚胎程序有时会被重新激活。本文讨论了 Sox9 在编程肝脏和胰腺祖细胞中的作用以及该领域的争议。
