Kaspi H, Chapnik E, Levy M, Beck G, Hornstein E, Soen Y. Brief report:
miR-290-295 regulate embryonic stem cell differentiation propensities by repressing Pax6.
Stem Cells 2014;
31:2266-72. [PMID:
23843298 DOI:
10.1002/stem.1465]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2012] [Revised: 05/24/2013] [Accepted: 06/06/2013] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
microRNAs of the miR-290-295 family are selectively expressed at high levels in mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) and have established roles in regulating self-renewal. However, the potential influence of these microRNAs on cell fate acquisition during differentiation has been overlooked. Here, we show that miR-290-295 regulate the propensity of mESCs to acquire specific fates. We generated a new miR-290-295-null mESC model, which exhibits increased propensity to generate ectoderm, at the expense of endoderm and mesoderm lineages. We further found that in wild-type cells, miR-290-295 repress Pax6 and ectoderm differentiation; accordingly, Pax6 knockdown partially rescues the mESCs differentiation impairment that is caused by loss of miR-290-295. Thus, in addition to regulating self-renewal, the large reservoir of miR-290-295 in undifferentiated mESCs fine-tunes the expression of master transcriptional factors, such as Pax6, thereby regulating the equilibrium of fate acquisition by mESC descendants.
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