Specific protein markers for stem cell cross-talk with neighboring cells in the environment.

A stem cell interacts with the neighboring cells in its environment. To maintain a living organism's metabolism, either cell-cell or cell-environment interactions may be significant. Usually, these cells communicate with each other through biological signaling by interactive behaviors of primary proteins or complementary chemicals. The signaling intermediates offer the stem cell's functionality on its metabolism. With the rapid advent of omics technologies, various specific markers by which stem cells cooperate with their surroundings have been discovered and established. In this article, we review several stem cell markers used to communicate with either cancer or immune cells in the human body.