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Naohiro Terada, MD, PhD
answers a
few questions about this month's fast breaking paper in
the field of Clinical Medicine.
From
•>>December 2002
Field: Clinical Medicine
Article Title: "Bone marrow cells adopt the phenotype of other cells by spontaneous cell fusion"
Authors: Terada,
N;Hamazaki, T;Oka, M;Hoki, M;Mastalerz,
DM;Nakano, Y;Meyer, EM;Morel, L;Petersen, BE;Scott, EW
Journal: NATURE
Volume: 416
Page: 542-545
Year: APR 4 2002
* Univ Florida, Coll Med, Dept Pathol, Gainesville, FL 32610 USA.
* Univ Florida, Coll Med, Dept Pathol, Gainesville, FL 32610 USA.
* Univ Florida, Coll Med, Shands Canc Ctr, Program Stem Cell
Biol, Gainesville, FL 32610 USA.
* Univ Florida, Coll Med, Dept Pharmacol, Gainesville, FL 32610 USA.
* Univ Florida, Coll Med, Dept Mol Genet & Microbiol, Gainesville, FL 32610 USA.
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Why
do you think your paper is highly cited?
cells could be in our body. Recent publications have suggested
that adult stem cells could "transdifferentiate" into
virtually every cell type after transplantation. Our paper,
however, cast a doubt on such hyperbole. We pointed out that
none of the previous reports had sufficient evidence to conclude
"transdifferentiation". Instead, their data could be
explained by an alternative mechanism such as spontaneous cell
fusion. I think our paper has been taken as an important
cautionary tale for the current stem cell research where people
tend to discuss "transdifferentiation" or
"dedifferentiation" without careful examination of
cell identity.