This addition to the Springer Brief in Stem Cells series focuses on aspects related to the specific mechanisms that ensure and control pluripotency and cell commitment in domestic animal species. This topic is generating rapidly-increasing interest due to the great potential for domestic animal species to be used as intermediate biomedical models, between the mouse and the human. The Brief addresses why we need large animal models for regenerative medicine. It also describes early embryo development with a careful and specific analysis of the regulatory mechanisms driving cleavage, polarization and genome activation in domestic species. How pluripotency is compartmentalized in domestic species as well as the different aspects that make the derivation of stem cells in domestic species very difficult are also addressed.

Dr. Tiziana Brevini is a professor in the Department of Animal Science, Laboratory of Biomedical Embryology, at the University of Milan. She is a reviewer for both the European Science Foundation and the United States National Science Foundation. She has authored over 140 publications on cell proliferation and differentiation, gametogenesis, embryo development and stem cell biology.