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TISSUE-SPECIFIC STEM CELLS

Evidence That Very Small Embryonic-Like Stem Cells Are Mobilized into Peripheral Blood

^aStem Cell Institute at James Graham Brown Cancer Center, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA, and
^bDepartment of Physiopathology, Pomeranian Medical University, Szczecin, Poland

Key Words. Very small embryonic-like stem cells • CXCR4 • stage-specific embryonic antigen-1 • Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor • Mobilization

Correspondence: Correspondence: Mariusz Z. Ratajczak, M.D., Ph.D., Stem Cell Institute at James Graham Brown Cancer Center, University of Louisville, 500 South Floyd Street, Room 107, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, USA. Telephone: 502-852-1788; Fax: 502-852-3032; e-mail: mzrata01{at}louisville.edu; or Magda Kucia, Ph.D., Stem Cell Institute at James Graham Brown Cancer Center, University of Louisville, 500 South Floyd Street, Room 107, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, USA. Telephone: 502-852-1788; Fax: 502-852-3032; e-mail: mjkuci01{at}louisville.edu

Received on November 7, 2007; accepted for publication on May 15, 2008.

First published online in STEM CELLS EXPRESS  June 5, 2008.

Recently, we identified in murine adult tissues, including bone marrow, a population of very small embryonic-like (VSEL) stem cells. Here, we provide further evidence that under steady-state conditions these cells circulate at very low levels in peripheral blood (PB) (100–200 cells/ml) and could be additionally mobilized during pharmacological granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor-induced or stress-related mobilization, as demonstrated in a model of toxic liver or skeletal muscle damage induced by injection of carbon tetrachloride or cardiotoxin, respectively. The number of circulating VSEL stem cells under steady-state conditions in PB of 2-month-old animals was five times higher than that in 1-year-old mice. In conclusion, this study supports a hypothesis that VSEL stem cells are a mobile pool of primitive stem cells that could be released from the stem cell niches into PB. Further studies are needed, however, to see whether the level of these cells circulating in PB could become a prognostic indicator to assess the regenerative potential of an adult organism and/or clinical outcome from an injury.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest is found at the end of this article.

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