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News |
Lab-grown structures mimic human embryo's earliest stage yet
The experiments use human cells to imitate the blastocyst phase — offering a crucial window into human development.
- Nidhi Subbaraman
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Article |
Primate cell fusion disentangles gene regulatory divergence in neurodevelopment
Cortical organoids derived from tetraploid human–chimpanzee fused induced pluripotent stem cells provide a platform for untangling unique molecular features of human brain development.
- Rachel M. Agoglia
- , Danqiong Sun
- & Hunter B. Fraser
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News |
Scientists grew tiny tear glands in a dish — then made them cry
Organoids made of tear-producing cells offer chances to study, and possibly treat, eye disorders.
- Heidi Ledford
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Article |
The RNA m6A reader YTHDC1 silences retrotransposons and guards ES cell identity
N6-methyladenosine RNA and its reader YTHDC1 serve as a bridge to silencing retrotransposons through the RNA derived from these retrotransposons in mouse ES cells.
- Jiadong Liu
- , Mingwei Gao
- & Jiekai Chen
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News & Views |
Exercise generates immune cells in bone
A specialized type of bone-cell progenitor has been identified in the bone marrow, and shown to support the generation of immune cells called lymphocytes in response to movement.
- Mehmet Saçma
- & Hartmut Geiger
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Article |
A mechanosensitive peri-arteriolar niche for osteogenesis and lymphopoiesis
A peri-arteriolar niche in the bone marrow for osteogenesis and lymphopoiesis is maintained by mechanical stimulation and is depleted during ageing.
- Bo Shen
- , Alpaslan Tasdogan
- & Sean J. Morrison
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Article |
An organoid-based organ-repurposing approach to treat short bowel syndrome
In a rat model of short bowel syndrome, transplantation of small intestinal organoids into the colon partially restores intestinal function and improves survival—a proof of principle that organoid transplantation might have therapeutic benefit.
- Shinya Sugimoto
- , Eiji Kobayashi
- & Toshiro Sato
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News |
Neanderthal-like ‘mini-brains’ created in lab with CRISPR
Organoids that contain an ancient version of a gene that influences brain development are smaller and bumpier than those with human genes.
- Ariana Remmel
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Nature Podcast |
Human Genome Project - Nature’s editor-in-chief reflects 20 years on
Looking back at the publication of the human genome, and how macrophages mend muscle.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Nick Petrić Howe
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Article |
In situ mapping identifies distinct vascular niches for myelopoiesis
A combination of fluorescent antibodies is used to build visual maps of all myeloid cells in the bone marrow, providing new insight into how the bone marrow microenvironment regulates cell-fate decisions.
- Jizhou Zhang
- , Qingqing Wu
- & Daniel Lucas
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Article |
Macrophages provide a transient muscle stem cell niche via NAMPT secretion
Specific macrophage populations provide a transient niche that activates muscle stem cells after muscle injury and supply proliferation-inducing cues that govern the repair process mediated by these cells in both zebrafish and mouse injury models.
- Dhanushika Ratnayake
- , Phong D. Nguyen
- & Peter D. Currie
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Article |
Cell competition constitutes a barrier for interspecies chimerism
Primed pluripotent stem cells from distant species compete with each other, and inactivation of NF-κB signalling in normally outcompeted human cells improves their survival and chimerism in mouse embryos.
- Canbin Zheng
- , Yingying Hu
- & Jun Wu
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Article |
Chaperone-mediated autophagy sustains haematopoietic stem-cell function
Haematopoietic stem cells show progressive functional decline with age that can be reversed by stimulation of chaperone-mediated autophagy in old mice and aged humans.
- Shuxian Dong
- , Qian Wang
- & Ana Maria Cuervo
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Article |
Control of osteoblast regeneration by a train of Erk activity waves
The rate of scale regeneration in zebrafish is controlled by the frequency of rhythmic travelling waves of Erk activity, which are broadcast from a central source to induce ring-like patterns of osteoblast tissue growth.
- Alessandro De Simone
- , Maya N. Evanitsky
- & Stefano Di Talia
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News & Views |
Pain-sensing neurons mobilize blood stem cells from bone marrow
Pain-sensing nerve cells can mobilize blood stem cells in mice, with a component of chilli peppers being one stimulus. The finding holds the promise of improving procedures for stem-cell transplantation.
- Anastasia N. Tikhonova
- & Iannis Aifantis
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Article |
Nociceptive nerves regulate haematopoietic stem cell mobilization
Stimulation of pain-sensing neurons, which can be achieved in mice by the ingestion of capsaicin, promotes the migration of haematopoietic stem cells from the bone marrow into the blood.
- Xin Gao
- , Dachuan Zhang
- & Paul S. Frenette
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Article |
Creation of bladder assembloids mimicking tissue regeneration and cancer
Multilayer 3D reconstitution of bladder stem cells with stromal cells enables recapitulation of the architecture and molecular functions of bladder tissue.
- Eunjee Kim
- , Seoyoung Choi
- & Kunyoo Shin
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Article |
Reconstitution of the oocyte transcriptional network with transcription factors
Eight transcription factors are identified that, when overexpressed, are sufficient to grow oocyte-like cells from mouse pluripotent stem cells.
- Nobuhiko Hamazaki
- , Hirohisa Kyogoku
- & Katsuhiko Hayashi
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Nature Video |
Rewinding the biological clock helps blind mice to see
Cells in the eye appear to be ‘younger’ after treatment
- Shamini Bundell
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Research Highlight |
A sugary coating tells cells it’s time to make blood
Sugars ‘write’ a signal that helps embryonic cells to transition to a vital new job.
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News & Views |
Sight restored by turning back the epigenetic clock
Neurons progressively deteriorate with age and lose resilience to injury. It emerges that treatment with three transcription factors can re-endow neurons in the mature eye with youthful characteristics and the capacity to regenerate.
- Andrew D. Huberman
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Article |
Reprogramming to recover youthful epigenetic information and restore vision
Expression of three Yamanaka transcription factors in mouse retinal ganglion cells restores youthful DNA methylation patterns, promotes axon regeneration after injury, and reverses vision loss in a mouse model of glaucoma and in aged mice, suggesting that mammalian tissues retain a record of youthful epigenetic information that can be accessed to improve tissue function.
- Yuancheng Lu
- , Benedikt Brommer
- & David A. Sinclair
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Article |
TRF2-mediated telomere protection is dispensable in pluripotent stem cells
Depletion of TRF2—an essential mediator of telomere protection in most mammalian cells—in mouse embryonic stem cells activates a compensatory transcriptional program that renders TRF2 dispensable for their survival and proliferation.
- Marta Markiewicz-Potoczny
- , Anastasia Lobanova
- & Eros Lazzerini Denchi
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Article |
Progenitor identification and SARS-CoV-2 infection in human distal lung organoids
A long-term culture method for organoids derived from single adult human lung cells is used to identify progenitor cells and study SARS-CoV-2 infection.
- Ameen A. Salahudeen
- , Shannon S. Choi
- & Calvin J. Kuo
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News |
California’s vote to revive controversial stem-cell institute sparks debate
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine will receive billions in state funding — but some scientists oppose the plan.
- Nidhi Subbaraman
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Article |
Inherited causes of clonal haematopoiesis in 97,691 whole genomes
Analysis of 97,691 high-coverage human blood DNA-derived whole-genome sequences enabled simultaneous identification of germline and somatic mutations that predispose individuals to clonal expansion of haematopoietic stem cells, indicating that both inherited and acquired mutations are linked to age-related cancers and coronary heart disease.
- Alexander G. Bick
- , Joshua S. Weinstock
- & Pradeep Natarajan
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Article |
Capillary cell-type specialization in the alveolus
Single-cell analysis of blood vessels in the alveolus, the site of chronic disease and virus-induced lung injury, reveals two intermingled endothelial cell types with specialized gas exchange and stem cell functions.
- Astrid Gillich
- , Fan Zhang
- & Ross J. Metzger
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Article |
Phenotypic landscape of intestinal organoid regeneration
An organoid-based screening platform maps the genetic interactions underlying intestinal development and regeneration, showing that retinoic acid metabolism maintains the balance between regeneration and homeostasis, and that an antagonist of the retinoid X receptor promotes regeneration in vivo.
- Ilya Lukonin
- , Denise Serra
- & Prisca Liberali
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Technology Feature |
A menagerie of stem-cell models
When conventional laboratory models fail, stem cells from squirrels, seals and other species can come to researchers’ aid.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
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Article |
Reprogramming roadmap reveals route to human induced trophoblast stem cells
Single-cell transcriptomics roadmap of human dermal fibroblasts reprogrammed to primed and naive pluripotency reveals a route for the direct reprogramming of somatic cells into induced trophoblast stem cells.
- Xiaodong Liu
- , John F. Ouyang
- & Jose M. Polo
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Article |
Homeostatic mini-intestines through scaffold-guided organoid morphogenesis
Miniature gut tubes grown in vitro from mouse intestinal stem cells are perfusable, can be colonized with microorganisms and exhibit a similar arrangement and diversity of specialized cell types to intestines in vivo.
- Mikhail Nikolaev
- , Olga Mitrofanova
- & Matthias P. Lutolf
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Research Highlight |
Why some animals have the power of regeneration
Newly identified genetic elements help to replace missing tails and other body parts.
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Article |
Heterotypic cell–cell communication regulates glandular stem cell multipotency
The multipotency of basal stem cells is directly regulated by luminal cells through the secretion of TNF, and, following luminal cell ablation, the Notch, Wnt and EGFR signalling pathways reactivate basal cell multipotency.
- Alessia Centonze
- , Shuheng Lin
- & Cédric Blanpain
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Article |
Immune-evasive human islet-like organoids ameliorate diabetes
Metabolically-mature human islet-like organoids generated from induced pluripotent stem cells are able to recapitulate insulin-responsive pancreatic islet function and avoid immunologic cell death in diabetic mouse transplantation models.
- Eiji Yoshihara
- , Carolyn O’Connor
- & Ronald M. Evans
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News & Views |
Stretch exercises for stem cells expand the skin
Stretching the skin of mice reveals that mechanical strain is communicated by a subpopulation of stem cells that proliferate and promote mechanical resistance, and so generate extra skin.
- Matthias Rübsam
- & Carien M. Niessen
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Article |
Mechanisms of stretch-mediated skin expansion at single-cell resolution
Single-cell analysis in a mouse model of skin stretching shows that stretching causes a transient expansion bias in a population of epidermal stem cells, which is associated with chromatin remodelling and changes in transcriptional profiles.
- Mariaceleste Aragona
- , Alejandro Sifrim
- & Cédric Blanpain
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Nature Podcast |
Why skin grows bigger as you stretch it
Skin's unusual response to stretching is finally explained, and the latest in a huge effort to map DNA.
- Nick Howe
- & Shamini Bundell
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Article |
Single-cell lineage tracing unveils a role for TCF15 in haematopoiesis
Using single-cell lineage tracing, the authors identify TCF15 as a novel regulator of haematopoietic stem cell quiescence and self-renewal.
- Alejo E. Rodriguez-Fraticelli
- , Caleb Weinreb
- & Fernando D. Camargo
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Article |
N6-methyladenine in DNA antagonizes SATB1 in early development
The DNA modification N6-methyladenine regulates gene expression during mouse trophoblast development by depositing at the boundaries of active chromatin and preventing its spread by antagonizing the chromatin organizer SATB1.
- Zheng Li
- , Shuai Zhao
- & Andrew Z. Xiao
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Outlook |
Temprian Therapeutics: developing a gene-based treatment for vitiligo
A modified protein to disrupt the autoimmune cascade that can lead to the skin-pigment condition makes the company a finalist for The Spinoff Prize.
- Charles Schmidt
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Article |
Single-molecule imaging of transcription dynamics in somatic stem cells
Single-molecule fluorescence in situ hybridization and live-cell imaging are used to study the contribution of transcriptional noise to stem cell heterogeneity, revealing that stochastic transcription dynamics are conducive to concomitant stem-cell maintenance and tissue homeostasis.
- Justin C. Wheat
- , Yehonatan Sella
- & Ulrich Steidl
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Article |
Intracellular pH controls WNT downstream of glycolysis in amniote embryos
The authors show that metabolic activity leads to an increase in the intracellular pH of neuromesodermal precursors, and that this increase in pH, by allowing post-translational modification of β-catenin, is required for the activation of WNT signalling and mesodermal fate acquisition.
- Masayuki Oginuma
- , Yukiko Harima
- & Olivier Pourquié
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News |
Mini organs reveal how the coronavirus ravages the body
The virus can damage lung, liver and kidney tissue grown in the lab, which might explain some severe COVID-19 complications in people.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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Outlook |
Inside the stem-cell pharmaceutical factory
Vesicles secreted by stem cells might give clinicians a safer and simpler alternative to cell therapy, but researchers are still grappling with how best to prepare and study these tiny particles.
- Michael Eisenstein
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Article |
An in vitro model of early anteroposterior organization during human development
Human gastruloids—three-dimensional aggregates derived from human embryonic stem cells—show features of human embryos at around 19–21 days, and provide a model for the study of early human development.
- Naomi Moris
- , Kerim Anlas
- & Alfonso Martinez Arias
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News & Views |
Regenerative medicine could pave the way to treating baldness
Undifferentiated human stem cells have been coaxed to develop into skin-like structures in vitro. When engrafted onto mice, the structures produce hair — highlighting the potential of the approach for regenerative therapies.
- Leo L. Wang
- & George Cotsarelis
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Nature Podcast |
Podcast: Lab-made skin grows its own hair
Listen to the latest science news, brought to you by Shamini Bundell and Nick Howe.
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News |
Revealed: two men in China were first to receive pioneering stem-cell treatment for heart disease
The men are reportedly doing well one year on, but there is no way to confirm that the unpublished treatment using ‘reprogrammed’ stem cells works.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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Article |
Pharmacologic fibroblast reprogramming into photoreceptors restores vision
A set of five small molecules can induce the transformation of fibroblasts into rod photoreceptor-like cells, which can partially restore pupil reflex and visual function when transplanted into a rod degeneration mouse model.
- Biraj Mahato
- , Koray Dogan Kaya
- & Sai H. Chavala
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