Verfaillie Figure 6. Stem cell plasticity.

Over the past 5 years, at least 50 papers have been published demonstrating that cells or stem cells of one tissue can give rise to cells with phenotypic, morphologic, and in some instances functional characteristics of differentiated cells of a second tissue. Some of these apparent lineage switches occur between tissues that are derived from a different germ layer.

Abbreviations: BM, bone marrow; HSC, hematopoietic stem cells; MSC, mesenchymal stem cells; NSC, neural stem cells.