Guess that it was bound to happen Was just a matter of time … Jim Croce, “Lover's Cross” ... Over the past few years, numerous articles have been published in the primary literature in which the authors have reported the ability of various tissue-specific stem cells to develop into cells of unrelated tissue types. This apparent “plasticity” of stem cells from brain, bone marrow, and skeletal muscle has become a holy grail of stem cell therapeutics, promising the eventual clinical use of these adult stem cells in regenerating a cornucopia of damaged tissues [1, 2]. In a previous issue of stem cells, one of us (R.G.H.) espoused the need to put these amazing observations into “Popper perspective” [3]. Now a flurry of papers appear to have done just that, calling into question the concept of adult stem cell plasticity while raising a cautionary note not only with regard to the methodologic limitations of the earlier adult stem cell plasticity studies, but also for the future of regenerative medicine predicated on the postulated use of these cells.
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Hawley et al. (2002) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 4 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: