Abstract:

BACKGROUND: More and more stem cells such as hematopoietic stem cells, neural stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells have been discovered, but there is no unified theory on stem cell classification and stem cell differentiation. Similarly, more and more stem cell niches, such as niches of hematopoietic stem cells, intestinal epithelial stem cells and hair follicle stem cells, have been found, and there is still no unified theory on the formation and distribution of stem cell niches. In the past 20 years, the viewpoint that “the orderly distribution of different types of stem cell niches constitutes the meridian system of Chinese medicine” has not been taken seriously, especially in China.
OBJECTIVE: To explore the evolutionary mechanisms for stem cell differentiation and stem cell niche distribution.
METHODS: With the reference of the Inner Canon of Yellow Emperor and literature on human anatomy, we further explained the distribution rule of stem cell niches in various tissues from the perspective of meridian theory. We explored the law of stem cell differentiation based on the biogenetic law, species evolutionary tree and the theory of meridians of Chinese medicine.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The embryonic development with the formation of three germ layers in higher animals directly transcends the evolutionary history of their invertebrate ancestors in an extremely simple way. The basic objects described in the biogenetic law should first be two stem cell differentiation chains   and    as well as the evolution of the distribution of stem cells in the meridian system. The presently accepted species evolutionary tree assumes that the ancestor of the deuterostomia is a primitive bilaterally symmetric animal, which is completely wrong. It violates the Darwinian principle of evolution from the viewpoint of stem cell differentiation, and the evolutionary tree cannot fork to form two branches, protostomia and deuterostomia, that are unrelated on the their origins. Cockroaches, spearfish and ginkgo cannot be living fossils. The origin of the species is multi-sources, and the species evolution is ongoing in a multi-level wavy manner.

Key words: Stem Cells, Meridians, Cell Differentiation, Medicine, Chinese Traditional, Tissue Engineering