Abstract
Tissue stem cells have been proposed to segregate the chromosomes asymmetrically (in a non-random manner), thereby retaining preferentially the older "immortal" DNA strands bearing the stemness characteristics into one daughter cell, whereas the newly synthesized strands are segregated to the other daughter cell that will commit to differentiation. Moreover, this non-random segregation would protect the stem cell genome from accumulating multiple mutations during repeated DNA replication. This long-standing hypothesis remains an active subject of study due to conflicting results for some systems and lack of consistency among different tissue stem cell populations. In this review, we will focus on work done in the hair follicle, which is one of the best-understood vertebrate tissue stem cell system to date. In cell culture analysis of paired cultured keratinocytes derived from hair follicle, stem cells suggested a non-random segregation of chromosome with respect to the older DNA strand. In vivo, the hair follicle stem cells appear to self-renew and differentiate at different phases of their homeostatic cycle. The fate decisions occur in quiescence when some stem cells migrate out of their niche and commit to differentiation without self-renewal. The stem cells left behind in the niche self-renew symmetrically and randomly segregate the chromosomes at each division, making more stem cells. This model seems to apply to at least a few other vertebrate tissue stem cells in vivo.