Fusion of bone-marrow-derived cells with Purkinje neurons, cardiomyocytes and hepatocytes

Recent studies have suggested that bone marrow cells possess a broad differentiation potential, being able to form new liver cells, cardiomyocytes and neurons. Several groups have attributed this apparent plasticity to 'transdifferentiation'. Others, however, have suggested that cell fusio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature 2003-10, Vol.425 (6961), p.968-973
Main Authors: Alvarez-Buylla, Arturo, Alvarez-Dolado, Manuel, Pardal, Ricardo, Garcia-Verdugo, Jose M, Fike, John R, Lee, Hyun O, Pfeffer, Klaus, Lois, Carlos, Morrison, Sean J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal cells
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Bone marrow
Bone Marrow Cells - cytology
Bone Marrow Transplantation
Cell cultures. Hybridization. Fusion
Cell Differentiation
Cell Fusion
Cells
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Giant Cells - cytology
Hepatocytes - cytology
Humanities and Social Sciences
letter
Mice
Mice, Inbred C57BL
Models, Biological
Molecular and cellular biology
multidisciplinary
Myocytes, Cardiac - cytology
Neurons
Purkinje Cells - cytology
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Stem Cells - cytology
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Summary:Recent studies have suggested that bone marrow cells possess a broad differentiation potential, being able to form new liver cells, cardiomyocytes and neurons. Several groups have attributed this apparent plasticity to 'transdifferentiation'. Others, however, have suggested that cell fusion could explain these results. Using a simple method based on Cre/lox recombination to detect cell fusion events, we demonstrate that bone-marrow-derived cells (BMDCs) fuse spontaneously with neural progenitors in vitro. Furthermore, bone marrow transplantation demonstrates that BMDCs fuse in vivo with hepatocytes in liver, Purkinje neurons in the brain and cardiac muscle in the heart, resulting in the formation of multinucleated cells. No evidence of transdifferentiation without fusion was observed in these tissues. These observations provide the first in vivo evidence for cell fusion of BMDCs with neurons and cardiomyocytes, raising the possibility that cell fusion may contribute to the development or maintenance of these key cell types.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/nature02069