组蛋白去乙酰化酶抑制剂调控干细胞分化与体细胞重编程的研究进展

表观遗传调控,如组蛋白乙酰化修饰,是决定干细胞分化方向的重要机制。组蛋白去乙酰化酶抑制剂(HDACi)通过影响不同亚类的组蛋白去乙酰化酶(HDAC)活性,提高组蛋白乙酰化水平,调控基因表达,从而影响胚胎干细胞自我更新,以及沿神经元、心肌和造血等细胞谱系的定向分化。HDACi类小分子化合物在体细胞重编程中也有广泛的应用,可替代致癌因子c-Myc和Klf4,促进体细胞克隆。研究显示,HDACi的效应与药物剂量、细胞类型和细胞分化状态密切相关。本文主要阐述了HDACi在干细胞分化和体细胞重编程中的应用进展,并对所涉及的分子通路进行讨论,有助于揭示干细胞定向分化的关键分子机制,优化干细胞定向分化诱导策略,对干细胞诱导分化具有重要的理论和实用价值。     

组蛋白乙酰化对成体干细胞生物学性状的影响

成体干细胞（adult stem cells,ASCs）是指存在于一种已经分化组织中的未分化细胞,它们可以再生修复损伤的组织和器官,是组织工程和细胞治疗的理想细胞。但是ASCs在体外扩增过程中容易发生自主分化和衰老,影响其在临床的广泛应用。组蛋白乙酰化作为表观遗传调节的重要机制,参与细胞分化、衰老及凋亡等众多细胞活动的调控。该文就组蛋白乙酰化对成体干细胞生物学性状的影响进行综述。     

神经退行性疾病中的乙酰化内稳态

近年来对神经退行性疾病机制的研究发现,乙酰化和去乙酰化在这一过程扮演了重要角色。组蛋白乙酰化酶(histone acetylase,HAT)和组蛋白去乙酰化酶(histone deacetylase,HDAC)两大家族分别催化组蛋白的乙酰化和去乙酰化,两者相互拮抗,维持体内乙酰化内稳态的平衡。乙酰化内稳态的概念就是在这样的基础上提出的。在神经退行性疾病的发病过程中,组蛋白乙酰基转移酶含量下降,乙酰化内稳态被打破,影响了神经细胞内重要基因的转录,从而导致了神经细胞功能失调甚至死亡。该文主要介绍HAT和HDAC两大家族在神经退行性疾病中的作用机制,以及针对乙酰化内稳态平衡机制的治疗策略。     

综述: 组蛋白去乙酰化酶的结构及应用

组蛋白赖氨酸乙酰化是目前研究最为广泛和深入的组蛋白翻译后修饰之一,在染色质重塑和基因表达调控等方面发挥重要作用,这种修饰在体内受到组蛋白乙酰化酶和去乙酰化酶的高度动态调控．除了以组蛋白为底物外,组蛋白去乙酰化酶还可以催化多种非组蛋白的去乙酰化,参与多种生命过程的调节．本文围绕四类人源组蛋白去乙酰化酶,综述了其分类依据、结构与功能特点、催化反应的分子机制,以及针对这些组蛋白去乙酰化酶的抑制剂和激动剂的开发和应用等方面的研究进展．     

昆虫组蛋白去乙酰化酶HDACs的研究进展

组蛋白乙酰化修饰是一种重要的蛋白质翻译后修饰方式,由组蛋白乙酰基转移酶HATs和组蛋白去乙酰化酶HDACs共同调节。昆虫HDACs蛋白家族根据其同源性和结构的不同共分为4类,各昆虫物种之间既具有较高的保守同源性,同时也表现出一定的物种特异性。HDACs主要参与昆虫的胚胎发育、体节形成、寿命和神经行为等方面的调节。本文从HDACs蛋白的种类、系统发育、生理功能等方面展开,介绍了近年来国内外昆虫HDACs领域的最新研究进展,以期对研究昆虫表型可塑性调节机制以及探索新的害虫防治方法提供借鉴。     

Recent progress in research on insect histone deacetylases (HDACs)

组蛋白乙酰化修饰是一种重要的蛋白质翻译后修饰方式,由组蛋白乙酰基转移酶HATs和组蛋白去乙酰化酶HDACs共同调节.昆虫HDACs蛋白家族根据其同源性和结构的不同共分为4类,各昆虫物种之间既具有较高的保守同源性,同时也表现出一定的物种特异性.HDACs主要参与昆虫的胚胎发育、体节形成、寿命和神经行为等方面的调节.本文从HDACs蛋白的种类、系统发育、生理功能等方面展开,介绍了近年来国内外昆虫HDACs领域的最新研究进展,以期对研究昆虫表型可塑性调节机制以及探索新的害虫防治方法提供借鉴.     

多细胞生物干细胞不对称分裂的内在调节机制研究进展

多细胞生物的发育是从一个受精卵分化成多种类型细胞的过程。细胞多样性形成的基础是不等分裂,不等分裂是干细胞自我更新和自我维持的关键。干细胞不等分裂有细胞内和细胞外两种调节机制。果蝇神经干细胞增殖和分化、植物胚胎发育、表皮气孔形成及根内皮层的分化,是研究不等细胞分裂调节机制最多的发育背景。本综述介绍了果蝇神经干细胞和植物胚胎发育早期、表皮气孔发生及根皮层内皮层中细胞不等分裂内在调节机制的研究进展。     

胚胎和成体神经干细胞分化机制的研究

神经干细胞的分化调控一直是发育神经生物学的重要研究课题。综述了调节胚胎和成体神经干细胞分化的细胞内在因素和外部环境因素,初步探讨了胚胎和成体神经干细胞分化机制的差异。     

果蝇神经干细胞研究进展

中枢神经系统由数量庞大、类型多样的神经细胞和神经胶质细胞组成,它调节生物体各种生理活动以及学习、记忆和思维等认知功能。神经细胞和神经胶质细胞由神经干细胞产生,所以对神经干细胞的研究有十分重要的意义。果蝇作为一种经典模式生物,长期被用于神经干细胞增殖、分化、凋亡等方面的研究。本文阐述了果蝇神经干细胞的最新研究进展,包括神经干细胞的类型和起源,参与神经干细胞不对称分裂的关键蛋白质,神经干细胞的静息、激活和最终的分化或凋亡,以及神经元多样性产生的机制,希望对神经生物学的基础研究有所帮助。     

组蛋白去乙酰化酶与急性肾损伤

组蛋白乙酰化是表观遗传修饰的方式之一,由组蛋白乙酰化转移酶催化,并受组蛋白去乙酰化酶负向调节,在各种细胞的正常生理活动和病理生理过程中起重要作用。近年来的研究表明,组蛋白去乙酰化酶参与急性肾损伤中的多种病理生理反应,如细胞凋亡、去分化、增殖及再生修复等。本文主要阐述各种组蛋白去乙酰化酶在缺血再灌注、肾毒性药物、脓毒症、横纹肌溶解诱导的急性肾损伤中的作用与机制。     

命运决定子Numb在神经干/祖细胞不对称分裂及分化中的调控作用 

不对称分裂是干/祖细胞发育分化中的基本过程,膜相关蛋白Numb在其中发挥重要作用.Numb极性分布于细胞一侧,在干/祖细胞有丝分裂时不对等分配至两个子代细胞,使子代细胞产生不同分化命运.如一个保持在干/祖细胞状态,而另一个发育为神经元,这一过程主要通过抑制Notch信号通路发挥作用.近年在哺乳动物中的研究中发现,高强度Notch信号又能够反馈抑制Numb活性.Numb具有维持神经干/祖细胞增殖与促进分化的双重作用,Numb的命运决定作用还与Shh信号通路和p53蛋白等相关.另外,Numb参与调控细胞的粘连、迁移以及神经元轴突的分支与延长.本文主要对Numb在果蝇及哺乳动物神经干/祖细胞中的定位以及其在决定细胞命运和分化中的调控作用进行综述.     

Smart drugs for smarter stem cells: making SENSe (sphingolipid-enhanced neural stem cells) of ceramide

Ceramide and its derivative sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) are important signaling sphingolipids for neural stem cell apoptosis and differentiation. Most recently, our group has shown that novel ceramide analogs can be used to eliminate teratoma (stem cell tumor)-forming cells from a neural stem cell graft. In new studies, we found that S1P promotes survival of specific neural precursor cells that undergo differentiation to cells expressing oligodendroglial markers. Our studies suggest that a combination of novel ceramide and S1P analogs eliminates tumor-forming stem cells and at the same time, triggers oligodendroglial differentiation. This review discusses recent studies on the function of ceramide and S1P for the regulation of apoptosis, differentiation, and polarity in stem cells. We will also discuss results from ongoing studies in our laboratory on the use of sphingolipids in stem cell therapy.     

Functional neuronal cells generated by human parthenogenetic stem cells

Parent of origin imprints on the genome have been implicated in the regulation of neural cell type differentiation. The ability of human parthenogenetic (PG) embryonic stem cells (hpESCs) to undergo neural lineage and cell type-specific differentiation is undefined. We determined the potential of hpESCs to differentiate into various neural subtypes. Concurrently, we examined DNA methylation and expression status of imprinted genes. Under culture conditions promoting neural differentiation, hpESC-derived neural stem cells (hpNSCs) gave rise to glia and neuron-like cells that expressed subtype-specific markers and generated action potentials. Analysis of imprinting in hpESCs and in hpNSCs revealed that maternal-specific gene expression patterns and imprinting marks were generally maintained in PG cells upon differentiation. Our results demonstrate that despite the lack of a paternal genome, hpESCs generate proliferating NSCs that are capable of differentiation into physiologically functional neuron-like cells and maintain allele-specific expression of imprinted genes. Thus, hpESCs can serve as a model to study the role of maternal and paternal genomes in neural development and to better understand imprinting-associated brain diseases.     

Stem cell maintenance in the adult mammalian hippocampus: a matter of signal integration?

The continuous generation of new neurons from stem cells in the hippocampal dentate gyrus is considered an important contributor to hippocampal plasticity. A prerequisite for the life-long generation of new dentate granule neurons is the maintenance of the neural stem cell pool. A number of essential molecular regulators and signals for hippocampal neural stem cell maintenance have been identified, but how these pathways interact to prevent precocious differentiation or exhaustion of the stem cell pool is currently unknown. Here, we summarize the current knowledge on the molecular regulation of the hippocampal stem cell pool and discuss the possibility that signal integration through Notch signaling controls stem cell maintenance in the adult hippocampus.     

Overexpression of MCT8 enhances the differentiation of ES cells into neural progenitors

Embryonic stem (ES) cell differentiation is regulated by cytokines and growth factors, as well as small-compound chemicals incorporated into cells by transporter proteins. Little is known regarding the effect of transporters on ES cell differentiation. This study focused on the effect of transporters during the neural-lineage differentiation of ES cells. Among the 27 types of SLC family transporters, MCT8 expression was coincident with that of neural stem cell markers, and the overexpression of MCT8 accelerated the differentiation into neural cells. These results suggested that the transporters and their substrates also play a crucial role in the regulation of ES cell differentiation.     

ABC transporters, neural stem cells and neurogenesis--a different perspective

Stem cells intrigue. They have the ability to divide exponentially, recreate the stem cell compartment, as well as create differentiated cells to generate tissues. Therefore, they should be natural candidates to provide a renewable source of cells for transplantation applied in regenerative medicine. Stem cells have the capacity to generate specific tissues or even whole organs like the blood, heart, or bones. A subgroup of stem cells, the neural stem cells （NSCs）, is characterized as a self-renewing population that generates neurons and glia of the developing brain. They can be isolated, genetically manipulated and differentiated in vitro and reintroduced into a developing, adult or a pathologically altered central nervous system. NSCs have been considered for use in cell replacement therapies in various neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson＇s disease and Alzheimer＇s disease. Characterization of genes with tightly controlled expression patterns during differentiation represents an approach to understanding the regulation of stem cell commitment. The regulation of stem cell biology by the ATP-binding cassette （ABC） transporters has emerged as an important new field of investigation. As a major focus of stem cell research is in the manipulation of cells to enable differentiation into a targeted cell population; in this review, we discuss recent literatures on ABC transporters and stem cells, and propose an integrated view on the role of the ABC transporters, especially ABCA2, ABCA3, ABCB 1 and ABCG2, in NSCs＇ proliferation, differentiation and regulation, along with comparisons to that in hematopoietic and other stem cells.