Science刊载美国哥伦比亚大学医学中心科学家一项最新研究发现，祖细胞可以分化产生子代细胞包围在其周围维持其干细胞特性。
成体中肠祖细胞（adult midgut progenitor）是形成肠细胞的一种前体细胞，研究人员发现果蝇成体中肠祖细胞可向其分化出来的子细胞发送Notch信号蛋白，使子细胞包围在其周围。在果蝇发育早期阶段，这些周边细胞会保护祖细胞，使其不会分化成终端细胞。果蝇逐渐发育成成熟个体时，这些细胞会逐渐分化成肠细胞，少数细胞仍然保持干细胞特性以维持正常体细胞更新。
这项研究可帮助科学家探明在组织器官发育过程中干细胞是如何保持其干细胞特性，并可根据此机理研制药物用于打击癌症干细胞治疗癌症。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
Science 8 January 2010: DOI: 10.1126/science.1181958
A Transient Niche Regulates the Specification of Drosophila Intestinal Stem Cells
Divya Mathur,1 Alyssa Bost,1 Ian Driver,2 Benjamin Ohlstein1,*
Stem cell niches are locations where stem cells reside and self-renew. Although studies have shown how niches maintain stem cell fate during tissue homeostasis, less is known about their roles in establishing stem cells. The adult Drosophila midgut is maintained by intestinal stem cells (ISCs); however, how they are established is unknown. Here, we show that an ISC progenitor generates a niche cell via Notch signaling. This niche uses the bone morphogenetic protein 2/4 homolog, decapentaplegic, to allow progenitors to divide in an undifferentiated state and subsequently breaks down and dies, resulting in the specification of ISCs in the adult midgut. Our results demonstrate a paradigm for stem cell–niche biology, where progenitors generate transient niches that determine stem cell fate and may give insights into stem cell specification in other tissues.
1 Department of Genetics and Development, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY 10032, USA.
2 The Integrated Program in Cellular, Molecular, Structural and Genetic Studies, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY 10032, USA.
