The fate of human fetal stem/progenitor cells transplanted into rat brain depends on conditions of preculturing (long or short) and state and site of transplantation. Human nestin-positive stem cells cultured according to the short protocol did not migrate into hypoxic and normal brain after transplantation, but actively migrated in damaged spinal cord. After transplantation of long-cultured cells into the brain mainly committed neuroblasts and solitary nestin-positive cells migrated from the site of transplantation into the brain.

Possible impact of molecular technology (stem cells therapy) on origin and the development of dentoalveolar process of regeneration is considered in the survey article. The article presents molecular mechanisms of the dental organogenesis and features the beginning of regenerative growth of tooth's tissues with stem cells.

Effect of alkylating agent dipin was studied on hematopoietic (CFU-S) and stromal (CFU-F) progenitor cells. Single administration of dipin (0.06 mg/g) to adult (CBAxC57Bl/6) F1 hybrid mice induced a long-term (2 years) oscillations in the numbers of day 7 CFU-S and day 11 CFU-S in the bone marrow and spleen. Dipin also damaged the hematopoietic stroma as indicated by decreased numbers of CFU-F which remained low for at least a year. The capacity of stromal cells to form ectopic hematopoietic foci was considerably inhibited and also remained low for 10 months. The obtained data suggest high dipin sensitivity of the earliest hematopoietic and stromal cells. The dynamics of CFU-S numbers in the hematopoietic organs supports their functioning on the basis of clonal succession (Kay, 1965).

Certain differentiation-specific antigenic determinants are characteristic of pancreatic cells at each stage of embryonic development. Using immunohistochemical markers, we have demonstrated that the cells of several pancreatic tumors express some fetal proteins characteristic of embryonic cells of the pancreas. We propose that the presence of fetal antigens and proteins in the tumor is a sign of a lower tumor differentiation and a less favorable prognosis.

The method for obtaining human myoblast culture has been modified to consider the specific histological localization of the satellite cells as well as their growth properties; the cultivation conditions have been selected to grow up to 150000 cells/cm2. At high densities, the cells remain mononuclear and preserve their typical myoblast morphology as well as the capacity for fusion and the formation of myotubes. By contrast to fibroblasts, up to 80% of the cells in the myoblast culture were positive in the acid phosphatase test, which indicates their stem nature. The obtained myoblast cultures were used in the clinical tests of cell-mediated gene therapy of Duchenne's muscular dystrophy as well as in the bioassay for the effects of biologically active compounds.

Epidermis contains a compartment of stem cells but currently there is no common ctiterion to recognize individual stem cells with any confidence. Epidermis appears to contain stem cells of different levels of maturity and it is very likely that the main repository of epidrmal stem cells is located in the hair follicle from which cells can emigrate into epidermis and also give rise to follicular and sebaceous keratinocytes. Epidermis consists of proliferative units containing stem and transit-amplifying cells, but the exact size of a proliferative unit cannot be measured accurately. The available data suggest that populations of stem and transit-amplifying cells are not discrete but represent a continuum from cells with a high self-renewal capacity and a low probability of differentiation to those with low self-renewal capacities and high commitments to differentiation. Stem cells occupy a special niche that provides a microenvironment, including an adhesion of stem cells to the basal membrane and their paracrine interactions with neighbour epidermal and mesenchymal cells. The fate of an epidermal stem cell depends on its prehistory and microenvironment.

The cellular basis of liver growth is reviewed from overall recent and previous data. According to the present-day ideas, the adult mammalian liver contains at least two cellular populations with many properties similar to the stem cells of renewing tissues that provide for the liver postnatal growth and parenchyma regeneration under various conditions. According to the present nomenclature, the differentiated parenchyma cells--hepatocytes--are a unipotent committed population of stem cells. In addition, there is a system of nonparenchymal multipotent stem cells or oval cells in the liver. Certain key models of liver growth, regeneration, and repopulation that contributed to development of these notions are considered. The recent data are discussed in the context of yet unclear cellular mechanisms providing for the tremendous replicative potential of hepatocytes, the role of polyploidy in the growth effects, and the sources of malignant transformation in the liver.

This is a review of the experimental studies on the vertebrate retina neurogenesis. Data are provided on the distribution and localization of multipotent and stem cells in the developing, definitive, and regenerating eye. At the early stages of retina development, the neuroepithelial cells divide synchronously, thus leading to the accumulation of a certain number of the retinal rudiment cells. Synchronous divisions precede the asynchronous ones, when the differentiation of the retinal cells is initiated. The neuroepithelial cells are multipotent: the neuroblast is a source of the cells of different types, for example, neurons and glial cells. The proliferating multipotent cells are preserved in the ciliary-terminal zone of the retina of amphibians, fish, and chickens during their entire life. The differentiated pigment epithelium cells also proliferate in this area of the eye. The multipotent cells of the retinal ciliary-terminal zone and cells of the pigment epithelium in the eye periphery provide for the growth of amphibian and fish eyes during the entire life of these animals. In adult mammals, clonable and self-renewable cells were found among the pigmented differentiated cells in the ciliary folds. In a culture, the stem cells form spheroids consisting of depigmented and proliferating cells. Upon transdifferentiation, the cells of spheroids form rods, bipolar cells, and ganglionic and glial cells, thus suggesting the possible regenerative potencies of the stem cells in the ciliary body of the mammalian eye. The main event of retinal regeneration in newts is the transdifferentiation of the pigment epithelium cells. The results of comparative analysis suggest that the stem cells of the ciliary body in the mammalian eye and pigment epithelium cells in lower vertebrates exhibit similar potencies and use similar mechanisms during the formation of the cells of the neural series.

Here we study the properties of cell hybrids produced by the fusion of embryonal stem cells and differentiated ones. During in vitro cultivation, such hybrids predominantly lose the somatic partner chromosomes, although the loss of the embryonic partner autosomes 1, 9, 11, 12, 15, 16, 18, and 19 is also common in the clones; i.e., this is a bidirectional process. The use of a selective media allows the isolation of the clones, with the embryonal X chromosome replaced by the somatic genome homolog. The cell hybrids with a near-diploid chromosome set preserve the high-level pluripotency properties of the embryonal partner including the capacity to form chimeras after their introduction in the blastocoel. An investigation of the chimeric animals demonstrated a reprogramming of the "somatic" X chromosome in the course of development. The prospective identification of the chromosomes involved in the maintenance of pluripotency and studies of its cis- and trans-regulation in the cell hybrid genome are discussed.

The specific structural features of embryonic stem cells and embryoid bodies and mechanisms of their differentiation in different cell types are considered. The mouse embryonic stem cells (line R1) formed multilayer colonies which enlarged as a result of fast cell division. Embryoid bodies that derived from embryonic stem cells consisted of an outer layer, an inner layer, and an internal cavity. The structure of cells of the outer and inner layers markedly differed. Spontaneous and directed differentiation of embryoid bodies is determined by some unspecific and specific factors (growth and differentiation factors and extracellular matrix proteins). Retinoic acid, the most commonly used inducer of differentiation of the embryonic stem cells, induces different types of differentiation when applied at different concentrations. The sequence of expression of tissue specific genes and proteins during differentiation of the embryonic stem cells in vitro is similar to that in vivo.

This paper describes our study on the regeneration of hemopoietic and stromal components of bone marrow after mechanically emptying the medullar cavity of the guinea pig tibia. The intensity of hemopoiesis was determined from the number of hemopoietic cells, while the concentration and total number of stromal precursor cells were used to estimate the ability of the bone marrow to produce stromal structures, including its ability to restore a specific microenvironment. We found that there was no direct correlation between the recovery characteristics of hemopoietic and stromal cells. An increase in the population size of stromal precursor cells takes place early after curettage, and stromal fibroblasts become phosphatase-positive according to Gomori, which is characteristic of osteogenic tissue. We have also demonstrated that curettage of 3-5 tubular bones results in the growth of this cell population in the bone marrow of nonoperated bones and even in the spleen, which in guinea pigs participates only in lymphopoiesis.

We present the results of a study on the proliferative and differentiation potential of individual clones of stromal fibroblasts growing in monolayer cultures of bone marrow cells. Each precursor cell yielding a large colony in primary culture is capable of up to 34 doublings in vitro. The transplantation of clones or monoclonal strains of stromal fibroblasts into the open system results in the formation of microenvironment consisting of the bone and reticular tissue and is suitable for the differentiation of all three lines of hemopoiesis. Evidence has been obtained that, in a closed system, individual clones are capable of differentiation into the bone, cartilaginous, and reticular tissues. In other words, the adult organism has a common cell precursor for these tissues.

A review of one of the key problems of experimental hematology: the origin of hemopoietic stem cells in the development of vertebrates (amphibians, birds, and mammals). The appearance and functioning of two independent sources of hemopoietic stem cells (extra- and intraembryonic) were considered in amphibians, birds, and mammals. The contribution of each source to the formation of definitive hemopoietic tissue was analyzed. It was shown for amphibians and birds that intraembryonic organs such as the dorsolateral plate and the mesenchyme of dorsal aorta are involved in the formation of adult hemopoietic tissue, while the extraembryonic organs such as ventral islets and the yolk sac are devoid of true stem cells and provide only for the primary, transient hemopoiesis. New data have been considered concerning the previously unknown intraembryonic hemopoietic organ in mammals, a region of aorta-gonad-mesonephros arising in embryogenesis simultaneously with the yolk sac. Two extreme views on the involvement of stem cells of all these organs in the formation of definitive hemopoiesis have been considered. The data are provided on the interaction of the embryonic hemopoietic stem cells and the hemopoietic microenvironment of adult recipients.

The proliferation and differentiation of neural stem cells is a repair pathway in the nervous system. The differentiation of the cambial store neuroblasts is another pathway of this kind.

We studied the behavior and differentiation of human and rat neural stem cells after transplantation in the adult rat brain without immunosuppression. The rat stem cells were isolated from the presumptive neocortex of 15-day-old embryos. The human cells were isolated from the ventricular brain zone of 9-week-old embryos and cultivated for two weeks before transplantation. The results of histomorphological studies suggest that the microenvironment factors did not suppress the growth or development of transplanted stem cells. Both rat and human embryonic multipotent neural cells showed similar behavior and differentiation into neurons and glial cells. After transplantation, they continued to mitotically divide and migrated from the graft area to the surrounding tissue of a recipient brain. The presumptive glial cells migrated preferentially along the capillaries and fibrous structures of the recipient brain. Similar behavior of the rat and human neural stem cells in the microenvironment of the recipient adult rat brain and the absence of immune reaction suggest that the transplantation into the rat brain may serve as a model for studying the developmental biology of the human stem cells.

Stem cells are totipotent cells of the blastocyst (embryonal stem cells) and multipotent germinative cells of ento-, ecto-, and mesoderm that give rise to all tissues during embryogenesis. The stem cells have high proliferation activity and an unlimited capacity for self-production by symmetrical mitosis. Asymmetrical mitosis of the stem cells generates daughter cells ("progenitor cells") with unlimited proliferation potential. During differentiation, the progenitor cells give rise to definitive somatic cells. The stem and progenitor cells are preserved in most tissues of adult organism and provide for the constant replacement of the cells after their physiological death and damage. At the end of last century, stem cells were found in the brain of the adult mouse and rat and later in the brain of other mammals including humans. The subependymal zone of the lateral ventricles is considered the site of stem cells localization; however, there are indications of stem cells origination from ependyma while the subependymal zone serves as a collector of the progenitor cells where these cells divide. The problem of the localization of stem cells in a mature brain has not yet been resolved and is actively discussed. The stem and progenitor cells, as well as neuro- and gliogenesis, are most explored in the hippocampus and olfactory bulb. The progenitor cells migrate to the olfactory bulb from the subependymal zone of the lateral ventricles via a rostral migratory stream formed by the astrocytes, and then they differentiate to neural and glial cells. In the hippocampus, the neurons are formed in the subgranular zone of dentate gyrus. The discovery of stem and progenitor cells in the mature brain and their subsequent investigation point to an ongoing neuro- and gliogenesis in all periventricular sections of the brain and spinal cord during the whole animal or human lifespan. These processes proved to be related to the functional condition of CNS, and the de novo formed neural and glial cells proved to be involved in certain brain functions. Stress inhibits the proliferation of the stem cells, while certain brain pathologies (ischemia, injury, or epilepsy) can promote their division. Isolating and cultivating in vitro the stem progenitor cells yeilded their long-living clones, revealed the factors of their directed differentiation, and demonstrated the application of the native and genetically modified stem cells for the intrabrain transplantation of the cell and gene therapy of certain experimental brain pathologies, which offers a promising application of the stem cells for CNS maladies treatment. The aim of this review is to introduce the readers to the state of foreign studies on the brain stem cells by the beginning of 2001.

A space modification of a method for determining the cytotoxic activity of natural killers (NK) uses cultures of human lymphocytes and re-inoculated suspension of tumorous myeloblasts K-562. The 3H-uridine labeled target-cells fixated in 0.1 % formalin solution proved to be best suited to the conditions prohibiting regular recharge of cultural medium and utilization of radioactive agents. The following practical conclusions were made from the space-flown experiment: pre-launch procedures (lymphocyte isolation and delivery to the launch site) and time period till dock must not be longer than 5 days (1) and during transportation to the orbiting vehicle cell cultures must be kept at 18-20 degrees C (2). The modified method can be employed to study various aspects of cell interaction such as the NK ability to destroy target-cells in suspension cultured exposed in microgravity.

It was investigated the functional status of stem cell pool (CFUs) of bone marrow, spleen and peripheral blood in mice (CBA) in early (1-30 days) and late (180-360 days) period after acute intake of 90Sr (29.6 kBq/g). Cumulative dose in red bone marrow due to incorporated 90Sr was 0.98-87.7 Gy. The kinetics, proliferative and differentiative potential of stem hemopoietic cells (CFUs) and productivity of hemopoietic tissues were significantly influenced by dose rate, absorbed dose and degree of suppresssion of bone marrow functions. The obtained results indicated that the sarcomogenous doses of 90Sr (29.6 kBq/g) resulted in realization of compensatory reactions in hemopoietic stem cell pool to support the life ability of irradiated animals: higher proliferative potential of CFUs and its repopulation, redistribution of cell subpopulations during differentiation and activation of spleens hemopoiesis.