#stem cell factor

Stem Cell Factor Delivery into Heart Muscle After Heart Attack May Enhance Cardiac Repair and Reverse Injury

Stem Cell Factor or SCF is a small peptide that circulates throughout the bloodstream and eventually finds its way to the bone marrow where it summons bone marrow-based stem cells to the sight of injury for tissue repair purposes. Unfortunately, it takes injured tissues time to express SCF at high enough levels to recruit bone marrow stem cells to come and accelerate tissue healing. This is…

A Home A Stem Cell Could Love

In our bodies, stem cell populations live in specific places that are specially designed to accommodate them known as “stem cell niches.” Stem cell niches host and maintain stem cell populations, but the dependence of particular stem cells on their niche varies. For example, in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, the germ line stem cell niche can drive stem cells that have already begun to…