Which of the bone marrow-to-nonblood cell conversions can be attributed to bona fide hematopoietic cells?
If it is already difficult to rigorously establish hematopoietic cell plasticity using cultured cell lines, it is even more difficult to conclude that hematopoietic cells are plastic based on transplantation experiments. There is always the possibility that the bone marrow hosts a variety of dedicated tissue-specific stem cells, such as muscle stem cells, neuronal stem cells, and hepatic progenitors. The following requirements have to be met before concluding that a hematopoietic-to-nonhematopoietic transdifferentiation has been demonstrated (“the gold standard”): (1) Show that bone marrow cells purified on the basis of established cell surface markers cannot only reconstitute irradiated mice but can also participate in the formation of nonhematopoietic tissues. (2) Demonstrate that this can be done with a single cell or else clonal reconstitution of both types of tissues. (3) Demonstrate that the bone marrow-derived nonhematopoietic cells are differentiated and functional. Although th
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