Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305; email:
Annu Rev Cell Dev Biol. 2013;29:107-36. doi: 10.1146/annurev-cellbio-101512-122319. Epub 2013 Aug 5.
Adult animals rely on populations of stem cells to ensure organ function throughout their lifetime. Stem cells are governed by signals from stem cell niches, and much is known about how single niches promote stemness and direct stem cell behavior. However, most organs contain a multitude of stem cell-niche units, which are often distributed across the entire expanse of the tissue. Beyond the biology of individual stem cell-niche interactions, the next challenge is to uncover the tissue-level processes that orchestrate spatial control of stem-based renewal, repair, and remodeling throughout a whole organ. Here we examine what is known about higher order mechanisms for interniche coordination in epithelial organs, whose simple geometry offers a promising entry point for understanding the regulation of niche number, distribution, and activity. We also consider the potential existence of stem cell territories and how tissue architecture may influence niche coordination.
成年动物依赖于干细胞群体来确保其一生中的器官功能。干细胞受到来自干细胞巢的信号的控制，人们已经了解了单个巢如何促进干细胞特性并指导干细胞行为。然而，大多数器官包含多个干细胞-巢单位，这些单位通常分布在整个组织中。除了单个干细胞-巢相互作用的生物学之外，下一个挑战是揭示组织水平的过程，这些过程协调整个器官中基于干细胞的更新、修复和重塑的空间控制。在这里，我们研究了上皮器官中细胞间协调的更高阶机制，上皮器官的简单几何形状为理解巢数量、分布和活性的调节提供了一个有希望的切入点。我们还考虑了干细胞领地的存在以及组织架构如何影响巢协调的可能性。
