Our research focuses on two distinct adult stem cell populations: hematopoietic stem cells (HSC), which constantly maintain and can fully regenerate the entire blood system, and skeletal muscle satellite cells, which analogously mediate both homeostatic and regenerative skeletal muscle formation. These studies rely heavily on the prospective isolation of rare subsets of tissue-specific precursor cells, and the evaluation of their function in vivo in appropriate mouse models. The ultimate goals of this work will be to define both intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influence the migration, expansion, and survival of blood-forming and muscle-forming stem cells, to map cell lineage relationships in their differentiation to generate mature progeny cells, and to evaluate their therapeutic potential in response to tissue damage and disease.
Ongoing projects include:
Evaluation of the role of the transcription factor early growth response-1 (Egr-1) in HSC expansion and migration
Analysis of changes in the HSC microenvironment that accompany HSC mobilization, aging and leukemic transformation
Determination of the in vitro and in vivo self-renewal and differentiation potentials of prospectively isolated muscle stem cells
Identification of somatic reprogramming factors
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Papers & Publications:
Eggan K, Jurga S, Gosden R, Min IM, and Wagers AJ. Ovulated oocytes in adult mice derive from non-circulating germ cells. Nature, 441:1109, 2006
Massberg S, Schaerli P, Knezevic-Maramica I, Köllnberger M, Tubo N, Moseman EA, Huff IV, Junt T, Wagers AJ, Mazo IB, von Andrian UH. Immunosurveillance by hematopoietic progenitor cells trafficking through blood, lymph, and peripheral tissues. Cell, 131:994, 2007.
Laird DJ, von Andrian UH, Wagers AJ. Stem cell trafficking in tissue development, growth and disease. Cell, 132:612, 2008.
Min IM, Pietramaggiori G, Kim FS, Passegue E, Stevenson KE, Wagers AJ. The transcription factor EGR1 controls both the proliferation and localization of hematopoietic stem cells. Cell Stem Cell, 2:380, 2008.
Mayack SR, Wagers AJ. Osteolineage niche cells initiate hematopoietic stem cell mobilization. Blood, 2008 May 2 [Epub ahead of print].
Cerletti M, Jurga S, Witczak CA, Hirshman MF, Shadrach JL, Goodyear LJ, Wagers AJ. Highly efficient, functional engraftment of skeletal muscle stem cells in dystrophic muscles. Cell, 11:134, 2008. |
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