That these fundamental observations clustered in a specific Selleckchem CYC202 stretch of time, on the other hand, is also intriguing. In the same, specific time interval,

another major change in scientific trends arose. The idea of a hematopoietic stem cell, a common multipotent progenitor for all blood cells, had been formulated long before (reviewed in [12]), but had remained dormant without attracting interest and above all, experimental effort. The idea exited the realm of theoretical postulates in 1961, with the seminal work of Till and McCulloch [13] and [14], admittedly the first experimental evidence for a common multipotent progenitor of blood cells. In essence, the fundamental discoveries of a dual system of stem cells in bone were not only almost synchronous, selleck chemicals llc but also arose from efforts across the iron curtain that fell at the end of WWII, and are the direct result of the way WWII ended. It was the attempt to develop strategies for radioprotection that gave a new impetus to the science behind what was to become stem cell biology. Not casually, the front page of the famous New England Journal of Medicine paper by E. Donnall Thomas reporting in 1957 [15] the first attempt of bone marrow transplantation in humans both recounts the lethal effects of nuclear warfare, and acknowledges the support of the Atomic Energy Commission of the USA.

Much more in bone science and science at large emanate from the same cradle: the biology of bone matrix [16] and [17] and the role of parathyroid glands [18], for example, and key techniques such as microradiography and autoradiography [16], [17], [19], [20] and [21], to name a few. At about the same time that something “osteogenic” was being discovered in bone marrow by Tavassoli and Crosby Tenoxicam [3], and by Friedenstein and coworkers [2], it was exactly autoradiography that made it possible to trace the kinetics of bone cells in vivo,

in a series of seminal studies by Owen and Macpherson [22], [23], [24] and [25]. This is how we learned about precursor cells of osteoblasts in the inner layer of the periosteum, about the origin of osteocytes from osteoblasts, and about the kinetics thereof. Not casually, the two independent lines of thinking about the origin and precursors of bone cells were to merge soon thereafter in the work of Owen, just like her background in physics and attention to biology had merged in her early work as a reflection of the post-war climate and strategic priorities. Even the work of Friedenstein (Fig. 1) and that of Owen (Fig. 2) united at one point [26], which was crucial to disseminate the significance of Friedenstein’s work in the West. That unification was also crucial to formulate the concept not only of a stem cell for bone, but also for different tissues together comprising the skeleton being connected to one another at the level of a common ancestor, rather than as separate entities as thought previously.