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Tuesday, December 29, 2009 - Stem Cell Research News
Tissue-specific genes, thought to be dormant or not marked for activation in embryonic stem cells, are indeed marked by transcription factors, with proper marking potentially crucial for the function of tissues derived from stem cells.
The finding in the study by researchers at the Broad Stem Cell Research Center involves a class of genes whose properties previously were thought to be unimportant for stem cell function. Most research has instead focused on genes that regulate a pluripotency network and genes that regulate differentiation of embryonic stem cells into other cell lineages.
The Broad center researchers focused on a third class of genes, those expressed only in defined cell types or tissues, which generally remain silent until long after embryonic stem cells have differentiated into specific cell lineages.
"Although prior models suggested that the cascade of events leading to the activation of tissue-specific genes doesn't begin until embryonic stem cells have differentiated, our findings support a new hypothesis in which the competence of these genes for expression is dependent on specific marks established in the pluripotent state," said Stephen Smale, a professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics and senior author of the study. "If this hypothesis is correct, the proper marking of tissue-specific genes may be essential for pluripotency and the efficient differentiation of stem cells into clinically usable cell types and tissues."
Prior to this study, typical tissue-specific genes were believed to have
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