Featured Articles

SOX9+/PTF1A+ Cells Define the Tip Progenitor Cells of the Human Fetal Pancreas of the Second Trimester
Valentina Villani, et al., STEM CELLS Translational Medicine

Intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) is a common complication of premature newborns associated with white matter injury, cerebral palsy, and mental retardation. Currently, there are no therapies for this condition, which affects approximately 12,000 babies every year in the U.S. This article reports that cord blood-derived cells delivered in preterm rabbits with IVH decrease microglia infiltration, pro?inflammatory cytokines, and apoptotic cell loss. Cell treatment led to a partial recovery of myelination, preservation of white matter, and resumption of motor function. These findings support the notion that cord blood-derived stem cells have therapeutic potential for the treatment of degenerative processes caused by IVH.

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Attenuate Endothelial Leakage in Acute Lung Injury via Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinases‐1 to Reduce Focal Adhesion Kinase Activity
Vincent Yi‐Fong Su, et al., STEM CELLS

There are different pluripotent states along with early embryonic development in mammals, from totipotency to naive pluripotency to primed pluripotency. Although diverse pluripotent stem cell cultures all have the ability to differentiate into all the three germ layers and can self-renew, it has become clearer that these pluripotent states display significantly distinct epigenetic characters, playing an important role in the maintenance and intertransition. Understanding the epigenetic dynamics is conducive to a recapitulation of in vivo pluripotency/totipotency in dish and will further advance the research of cell fate determination and entire stem cell field.