Adult Telomerase Positive Stem Cells: Introduction and Location

Endogenous adult telomerase positive stem cells (aTPSCs) are naturally occurring and are located throughout the body. Three categories of aTPSCs were discovered: totipotent stem cells (TSCs, 0.1-2.0-microns) that will form all somatic cells of the body, gametes, placental cells, and the nucleus pulposis of the intervertebral disc (the only adult-derivative of the notochord; pluripotent stem cells, including halo-like stem cels (HLSCs, >2-4-microns), corona-like stem cells (CLSCs, >4-<6-microns), and pluripotent stem cells (PSCs, 6-8 microns), that will form all somatic cells of the body; and individual populations of multipotent germ layer lineage stem cells, e.g., ectodermal stem cells (EctoSCs,10-12-microns), mesodermal stem cells (MesoSCs, 10-12-microns) and endodermal stem cells (EndoSCs,10-12-microns), that will only form cells within their defined embryonic germ layer lineage. The proposal was to identify the location of aTPSCs, isolate, plate, propagate, segregate, sort, genomically label and test. Biopsy specimens of TSCs and PSCs were obtained from 11 species of animals. The biopsy specimens were fixed, sectioned, and stained with antibodies for carcinoembryonic antigen-cell adhesion molecule-1 and stage-specific embryonic antigen-4, examined histologically for various cells and histochemically for extracellular matrix components. When attempting to isolate the cells problems were encountered. Problems also occurred with every other step in the proposed plan. This begins a series of studies examining the rarity of aTPSCs and unique difficulties encountered when attempting to determine their functionality in regenerative medicine.