Stem cells enabling tissue regeneration and repair have been found in epithelium throughout the body. But similar stem cells have never been discovered in the ovary. Now new findings of a study may expand the knowledge of this field.
Ovarian tumor is a big killer for women that it leads to the death of more than one hundred and fifty thousand women each year. However, the mechanisms behind the disease are still unknown. Scientists want to know what events cause ovarian cancer. First of all, they should gain the knowledge of the normal cell biology of the ovary.
The outer lining of the ovary is called epithelium. In the study, the research team looked at the regeneration and repair of the epithelium and fallopian tube. In the course of ovulation, the epithelium layer is very important that the surface cells undergo repeated cycles of tearing and subsequent repair. But the scientists didn't know much about neither the molecular mechanism behind the tissue regeneration, nor how it is disrupted during tumor.
Prior research has demonstrated that a cell-surface receptor protein called Lgr5 is a marker to discover stem cells in the epithelium. Moreover, Lgr5-bearing stem cells have been identified to be a major source of epithelial cancers of the stomach and intestine. The latest study has found this protein in the ovaries and fallopian tubes of mice, proving the presence of stem cells in these organs.
The most recent work has identified the protein on cells of the ovaries and fallopian tubes of mice which confirms the presence and activity of resident stem cells that can maintain the ovarian epithelium. (CUSABIO offers many different kinds of proteins. http://www.cusabio.com/catalog-13-1.html)
The findings are significant to understand the biology of the stem cells in normal healthy tissue, and what goes wrong in ovarian cancer. Mutations in stem cells seem to be the main cause of ovarian cancers.
