Embargo expired: 7/19/2012 12:00 PM EDT Source Newsroom: Stowers
Institute for Medical Research Newswise — KANSAS CITY, MO — Not
all adult stem cells are created equal. Some are busy
regenerating worn out or damaged tissues, while their quieter
brethren serve as a strategic back-up crew that only steps in
when demand shoots up. Now, researchers at the Stowers Institute
for Medical Research have identified an important molecular cue
that keeps quiescent mouse hematopoietic (or blood-forming) stem
cells from proliferating when their services are not needed.
Publishing in the July 20, 2012 issue of Cell, the team led by
Stowers Investigator Linheng Li, Ph.D., report that Flamingo and
Frizzled 8, a tag team best known for its role in establishing
cell polarity, are crucial for maintaining a quiescent reserve
pool of hematopoietic stem cells in mouse bone marrow. Their
finding adds new insight into the mechanism that controls the
delicate balance between long-term maintenance of stem cells and
the requirements of