Table 2.
Examples of Selected Reports from Other Independent Groups on Small Stem Cells That Are Attributable to VSELs
| Cells name as originally described in the literature | References |
|---|---|
| ELH cells—Very small cells ∼5 μm in diameter isolated by elutriation and FACS sorting or by elutriation (E), lineage depletion (L), and recovered after homing (H) to BM. Give rise to long-term reconstituting hematopoietic cells (LT-HSCs) and epithelial cells. | [34,35,119] |
| Small nonhematopoietic Sca-1+ Lin−CD45− cells—Isolated by FACS from murine BM give rise to type II pneumocytes, producing surfactant in lung alveolar epithelium. Recently, these cells have been confirmed to be VSELs. | [39,52] |
| Pluripotent CD45-Sca-1+c-kit- cells—Isolated by FACS from murine BM, muscles, and intestinal epithelium that are able to differentiate into cells from all three germ layers. | [36] |
| Spore-like stem-cells—Very small cells, ∼5 μm in diameter, isolated from various murine tissues, resistant to freeze/thawing, expressing Oct-4, and showing broad differentiation. The isolation procedure of these small cells not revealed in original paper. | [37] |
| Rat embryonic-like stem cells (ELSCs)—Very small cells, ∼5 μm in diameter, isolated by FACS from rat bone marrow as SSEA-1+ Lin−CD45− population. These cells as reported express Oct-4 and are endowed with in vitro and in vivo cardiomyogenic and endothelial potential. | [45] |
| Ovarian and testicular VSELs—Small Oct-4+ SSEA+ cells isolated by FACS from ovarian surface epithelium (OSE) from mice (SSEA-1+) and humans (SSEA-4+)–precursors of female gametes. Human OSE-derived VSELs were characterized extensively by gene array for mRNA expression. Small Oct-4+ SSEA+ cells were also identified in murine and human testes as precursors of male gametes. | [14,15,18,68,117] |
| Embryonic-like stem-cells from UCB—Small CD45−, CD33−, CD7−, CD235a− pluripotent stem-cells (∼3 μm in diameter) co-expressing embryonic stem-cell markers, including Oct-4 and Sox2, and able to differentiate into neuronal cells. | [5,6] |
| Human UCB-derived VSELs—Small Oct-4+, SSEA-4+, Nanog+, Sox2+, Rex-1+, and Tert+ cells. | [7,20] |
| Human PB-derived VSELs—Oct-4+ very small cells isolated by FACS. In one of the reports SSEA-4+ CD133+ CXCR4+ Lin− and CD45− VSELs from human PB formed in immunodeficient mice vascularized bone fragments. | [9,41] |
| Omnicytes—Small Oct-4+ stem-cells identified in UCB, able to establish fetal-maternal chimerism. | [38] |
| UCB-derived nonhematopoietic CD34− Oct-3/4+, Sox2+, Rex-1+ cells—that are able to differentiate into neural lineage (neurons, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes). | [120] |