Bone marrow (BM) was, for many years, primarily envisioned as the “home organ” of
hematopoietic stem cells (HSC). Augmenting evidence demonstrates, however, that BM, in
addition to HSC, also contains a heterogeneous population of non-HSC. Recently, our
group identified in BM and other adult tissues a population of very small embryonic-like stem
cells (VSELs), which express several markers characteristic for pluripotent stem cells that
are characteristic for epiblast/germ line–derived stem cells. Thus, we hypothesize that …