Epigenetic mark guides stem cells toward their destiny
Sunday, March 22, 2009 - 11:29
in Biology & Nature
Not all stem cells are completely blank slates. Some, known as adult stem cells, have already partially embraced their fates, and are capable of becoming only cells of a particular type of tissue. So how do these tissue-specific stem cells restrict their fate? In research to appear in the 20 March issue of Cell, scientists at Rockefeller University have uncovered a gene control mechanism that guides the development and differentiation of epidermal skin stem cells in mouse embryos, and shown that this mechanism tempers the development of the skin barrier...