Abstract
What is the link between “Inflammation” and “Regenerative Medicine”? In this review series, we invited contributions from 5 outstanding groups of Japanese scientists. Two reviews by a distinguished group at Keio University elucidated new indicators for somatic stem cells within a bone marrow (BM) environment, with a particular focus on meschenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), respectively. The group of Drs. Mabuchi and Matsuzaki established a new definition for mouse and human MSCs by identifying new surface markers, which also exhibit the essential properties, self-renewal activity and multi-potency, of “stem cells”. MSCs show multifunctional diversity in regeneration and immunity, and have recently been strongly implicated in providing a novel “niche” for maintaining HSCs.
