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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Aug 1.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Genet. 2010 Oct 5;11(11):806–812. doi: 10.1038/nrg2881

Figure 1. The effect of stress on cell renewal systems.

Figure 1

a | In an acute stress setting, transient stress might spare tissue stem cells but injure other cell types. This could lead to transient mobilization of progenitor cells (beige) to replenish differentiated cells (red and orange) and achieve tissue homeostasis. b | In a chronic stress setting, there is a more pronounced and ongoing effect on cell renewal systems with injury of all cell types, including stem cells (yellow). The tissue response involves mobilization and continued renewal of both stem cells and progenitor cells. Genetic and epigenetic changes can lead to altered states of these cells with resultant abnormal tissue homeostasis and predisposition to diseases such as cancer.