Mighty bugs: leprosy bacteria turn schwann cells into stem cells.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 23332743.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1016/j.cell.2013.01.001.
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Abstract
For intracellular parasites that strongly prefer infecting a particular cell type, systemic spread is challenging. Masaki et al. show that the leprosy bacterium cleverly expands its repertoire by driving dedifferentiation of Schwann cells, their preferred host, to cells with stem cell properties that can subsequently redifferentiate into mesodermal lineages.