To release an egg during ovulation, the ovary ruptures, bursting a single layer of cells understood as the ovarian surface area epithelium (OSE). Barbara Vanderhyden and her team found that cells in the ovary may take on a stem-like state in action to the environment.iStockThey began with sphere formation, a standard assay for stem cells. Compared with cells cultured as a monolayer, OSE spheres ramped up gene expression across a number of pathways, including injury repair programs.
To release an egg during ovulation, the ovary ruptures, bursting a single layer of cells known as the ovarian surface area epithelium (OSE). Tissues such as intestinal tract crypts have distinct stem cell populations that facilitate tissue upkeep. Barbara Vanderhyden, an ovarian cancer biologist, and her team at the University of Ottawa just recently discovered that OSE cells respond to local ecological conditions, such as tissue damage, and shift to become more epithelial or more mesenchymal and stem-like.1 The group reported in Communications Biology that stemness emerges from a range of environmental hints, and that the ovarian epithelium may not require an unique population of stem cells for tissue maintenance. Barbara Vanderhyden and her team found that cells in the ovary may take on a stem-like state in reaction to the environment.iStockThey started with sphere formation, a standard assay for stem cells. Compared with cells cultured as a monolayer, OSE spheres ramped up gene expression across a number of pathways, consisting of wound repair programs.
