TY - JOUR
T1 - Stem cells and reprogramming
T2 - Breaking the epigenetic barrier?
AU - Ang, Yen Sin
AU - Gaspar-Maia, Alexandre
AU - Lemischka, Ihor R.
AU - Bernstein, Emily
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank Hsan-Au Wu for critical reading of this manuscript. We apologize to those whose work could not be cited due to space limitations. This work is supported by an NYSTEM IDEA Award C024285 to E.B. and a NYSTEM Award C024410 and National Institutes of Health GM078465 to I.R.L..
PY - 2011/7
Y1 - 2011/7
N2 - Increasing evidence suggests that epigenetic regulation is key to the maintenance of the stem cell state. Chromatin is the physiological form of eukaryotic genomes and the substrate for epigenetic marking, including DNA methylation, post-translational modifications of histones and the exchange of core histones with histone variants. The chromatin template undergoes significant reorganization during embryonic stem cell (ESC) differentiation and somatic cell reprogramming (SCR). Intriguingly, remodeling of the epigenome appears to be a crucial barrier that must be surmounted for efficient SCR. This area of research has gained significant attention due to the importance of ESCs in modeling and treating human disease. Here we review the epigenetic mechanisms that are key for maintenance of the ESC state, ESC differentiation and SCR. We focus on murine and human ESCs and induced pluripotent stem cells, and highlight the pharmacological approaches used to study or manipulate cell fate where relevant.
AB - Increasing evidence suggests that epigenetic regulation is key to the maintenance of the stem cell state. Chromatin is the physiological form of eukaryotic genomes and the substrate for epigenetic marking, including DNA methylation, post-translational modifications of histones and the exchange of core histones with histone variants. The chromatin template undergoes significant reorganization during embryonic stem cell (ESC) differentiation and somatic cell reprogramming (SCR). Intriguingly, remodeling of the epigenome appears to be a crucial barrier that must be surmounted for efficient SCR. This area of research has gained significant attention due to the importance of ESCs in modeling and treating human disease. Here we review the epigenetic mechanisms that are key for maintenance of the ESC state, ESC differentiation and SCR. We focus on murine and human ESCs and induced pluripotent stem cells, and highlight the pharmacological approaches used to study or manipulate cell fate where relevant.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=80955179571&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=80955179571&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.tips.2011.03.002
DO - 10.1016/j.tips.2011.03.002
M3 - Review article
C2 - 21621281
AN - SCOPUS:80955179571
SN - 0165-6147
VL - 32
SP - 394
EP - 401
JO - Trends in Pharmacological Sciences
JF - Trends in Pharmacological Sciences
IS - 7
ER -