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Chipping away at 'stemness'

April D Pyle1, Peter J Donovan1* and Leslie F Lock2*

Author Affiliations

1 Germ Cell and Stem Cell Group, Stem Cell Program, Institute for Cell Engineering, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA

2 Genetic Models Group, Stem Cell Program, Institute for Cell Engineering, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA

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Genome Biology 2004, 5:235 doi:10.1186/gb-2004-5-8-235

Published: 29 July 2004

Abstract

Global gene-expression analyses of human embryonic stem cells confirm the involvement of some known genes in stem-cell function and identify some new candidate regulators of stem-cell growth. Support remains elusive, however, for the concept of 'stemness' - a pattern of expression of genes that is common to all stem cells.