Abstract
Stem cells did not become a proper research object until the 1960 s. Yet the term and the basic mind-set—namely the conception of single undifferentiated cells, be they embryonic or adult, as the basic units responsible for a directed process of development, differentiation and increasing specialisation—were already in place at the end of the nineteenth century and then transmitted on a non-linear path in the form of tropes and diagrams. Ernst Haeckel and August Weismann played a special role in this story. The first coined the term Stammzelle (stem cell), the second was the author of the first cellular stem-tree diagram. Even today, I shall argue, the understanding of stem cells, especially the popular perception, is to a large extent a Haeckelian–Weismannian one. After having demonstrated this, by analysing the terminology, in this essay I will focus on the use of cytogenetic tree diagrams between 1892 and 1925 and on the tacit understanding of stem cells that they transmit.
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Notes
This statement was missing in the first two German editions.
The third linked process, according to Weismann, was the increasing complexity of the nucleoplasm during phylogeny.
Later, Haecker (1914, pp. 61–63) adopted Boveri’s definition of stem cells.
Here he explicitly referred to Weismann’s germ-plasm theory but never used the word stem cell.
Today, Ascaris is cited as the classic example of a very precocious segregation of the somatic from the germ line. While the lineage cells of the germ line retain their full chromosome complement, in the cells of the somatic line pieces of chromosomes are lost. The loss amounts to about 27 % of the total DNA of the cell.
In the fifth edition (1920) Hertwig eliminated it arguing that by then it had only historical value.
This became even more evident during the heydays of molecular genetics, whereas today, with systemic explanations having regained more attention, cell lineage studies are again integrated with studies on other dynamic events like cell movement and spatial and temporal regulatory networks of gene expression (Stern and Fraser 2001).
A good example for the ongoing and powerful though tacit temptation to use trees as scientific icons is provided by Hellström (2011).
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Acknowledgments
I am happy to acknowledge my gratitude to Sabine Brauckmann, Melinda Fagan, Uwe Hoßfeld, Renato G. Mazzolini, Staffan Müller-Wille, Laura Perini, Alessandro Volpone, Marianne Klemun and the discussants of the Historisches Seminar, University of Vienna, for their precious comments, and to Charles Hindley for the revision of the manuscript.
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Dröscher, A. Images of cell trees, cell lines, and cell fates: the legacy of Ernst Haeckel and August Weismann in stem cell research. HPLS 36, 157–186 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-014-0028-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-014-0028-8