The disparate role of BMP in stem cell biology

Stem cells share several characteristics of cancer cells including loss of contact inhibition and immortality. Therefore, stem cells represent an excellent model system in which to define the molecular mechanisms underlying cancer development and progression. Several signal transduction pathways including leukemia inhibitory factor, Wnt and FGF have been demonstrated to function in stem cell self-renewal and differentiation. However, more recently bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) have emerged as key regulators of stem cell fate commitment. Intriguingly, BMPs have disparate roles in regulating the biology of embryonic stem (ES) cells compared with neural crest stem cells (NCSCs). Furthermore, although BMPs block neural differentiation of ES cells from both mouse and human, they contribute to self-renewal specically in mouse ES cells. These observations strongly suggest that combinations of extracellular factors regulate stem cells, and that crosstalk between intracellular signaling pathways precisely defines stem cell fate commitment. In this review, we focus on the role of BMP signaling in mouse and human ES cells compared with NCSCs. We then discuss how the molecular effectors of BMP signaling may contribute to cancer, and thus represent potential targets for therapeutic intervention.