Developmental plasticity of stem cells and diseases

Abstract

Stem cells, which reside in most tissues with high plasticity of self-renewal and differentiation, play a critical role in the development and maintenance processes of many tissues. It is reasonable to suspect that many undefined chronic diseases are caused by the malfunction of stem cells. In this hypothesis, we try to explain the origin of undefined chronic diseases by the developmental plasticity of stem cells. Chronic diseases are phenotypes of stem cells' malfunction. Mutations of multipotent stem cells at the prenatal stage can be used to explain phenomena of early development of diseases. In addition, stem cells accumulate mutations from fetus stage to aging period and usually develop chronic diseases in late life periods.