Molecular mechanisms involved in self-renewal and pluripotency of embryonic stem cells

✍ Scribed by Na Liu; Min Lu; Xuemei Tian; Zhongchao Han

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 127 KB
• Volume: 211
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-9541
• DOI: 10.1002/jcp.20978

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Embryonic stem cells (ES cells) are derived from inner cell mass (ICM). The self‐renewal and pluripotency are the main specificities of ES cells, which are likely to reveal a deeper understanding of human cellular biology and which are considered to be promising sources for cell therapy to treat patients with degenerative diseases in clinical. Growth of ES cells as a pluripotent population requires a balance between survival, proliferation, and self‐renewal signals. In fact, the precise mechanism that regulates stem cell self‐renewal and pluripotency remains largely unknown. Recently, in vitro and in vivo studies have identified several genetic regulators that may play important roles in the self‐renewal and pluripotency process of human and mouse ES cells, including extracellular signaling factors, transcription factors, cell‐cycle regulators, microRNA, genes implicated in chromosomal stability, and DNA methylation. In this review, we will summarize the currently known molecular regulators for ES cells self‐renewal, and we will propose some possibilities to explain the ways in which these distinct pathways might interact. J. Cell. Physiol. 211: 279–286, 2007. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.