Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Exp Med. Feb 20, 2017; 7(1): 1-10
Published online Feb 20, 2017. doi: 10.5493/wjem.v7.i1.1
Effect of aging on stem cells
Abu Shufian Ishtiaq Ahmed, Matilda HC Sheng, Samiksha Wasnik, David J Baylink, Kin-Hing William Lau
Abu Shufian Ishtiaq Ahmed, Matilda HC Sheng, Samiksha Wasnik, David J Baylink, Kin-Hing William Lau, Regenerative Medicine Unit, Department of Medicine, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, CA 92354, United States
Kin-Hing William Lau, Musculoskeletal Disease Center, Jerry L. Pettis Memorial VA Medical Center, Loma Linda, CA 92357, United States
Author contributions: Ahmed ASI wrote the article; Lau KHW revised the article; Ahmed ASI and Lau KHW developed the original concept described in the article; Sheng MHC, Wasnik S and Baylink DJ contributed to the overall idea of the article, and they all reviewed and approved the article for publication.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have declared that no conflict of interest exists.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Kin-Hing William Lau, PhD, Musculoskeletal Disease Center, Jerry L. Pettis Memorial VA Medical Center, 11201 Benton Street, Loma Linda, CA 92357, United States. william.lau@med.va.gov
Telephone: +1-909-8257084-2836 Fax: +1-909-7961680
Received: August 27, 2016
Peer-review started: August 29, 2016
First decision: November 14, 2016
Revised: November 19, 2016
Accepted: December 7, 2016
Article in press: December 9, 2016
Published online: February 20, 2017
Processing time: 174 Days and 0.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Stem cells have the remarkable self-renewal capability and the amazing ability to differentiate into all cell types. It is generally believe that stem cells are the main source that provides cells to repair and regenerate damaged tissues and organs. However, there is now compelling evidence that the aging process has a deleterious effect on stem cells, and that the aging effects on stem cells may have play essential roles in the pathophysiology of the various aging-associated diseases. This review discusses briefly the relationship of aging-associated stem cell dysfunction and the various aging-associated ailments, and several proposed concepts on the molecular mechanism of aging-related stem cell dysfunction.