Metabolic regulation of stem cell plasticity

Stem cells must accurately balance self-renewal with the generation of specialized cells that each adopt the type of metabolism facilitating their specific function. However, recent advances demonstrate that metabolism can regulate decisions between self-renewal and differentiation, in addition to being a downstream outcome of transcriptional programs of differentiation. Here we discuss how metabolism influences mammalian stem cells, focusing on the conundrum of how cell fate determination can be accurately controlled if the endpoint product - the specialized cellular metabolism - can influence the process. We propose that most stem cells are guided by intrinsic and extrinsic metabolic cues, creating dynamic metabolic states that may differ in lineage preferences and activity but do not pose a deterministic impact on stem cell potency. Such metabolic plasticity safeguards tissue maintenance and regeneration from modest metabolic fluctuations, but disruptions beyond the limits of metabolic plasticity can impair stem cell function and fate potential.