Fujikura Junji, Yamato Eiji, Yonemura Shigenobu, Hosoda Kiminori, Masui Shinji, Nakao Kazuwa, Miyazaki Ji Jun-ichi, Niwa Hitoshi
Stem Cell Regulation Research, Area of Molecular Therapeutics, Course of Advanced Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
Genes Dev. 2002 Apr 1;16(7):784-9. doi: 10.1101/gad.968802.
Extraembryonic endoderm (ExE) is differentiated from the inner cell mass of the late blastocyst-stage embryo to form visceral and parietal endoderm, both of which have an important role in early embryogenesis. The essential roles of Gata-6 and Gata-4 on differentiation of visceral endoderm have been identified by analyses of knockout mice. Here we report that forced expression of either Gata-6 or Gata-4 in embryonic stem (ES) cells is sufficient to induce the proper differentiation program towards ExE. We believe that this is the first report of a physiological differentiation event induced by the ectopic expression of a transcription factor in ES cells.
胚外内胚层（ExE）由晚期囊胚阶段胚胎的内细胞团分化形成脏壁内胚层和壁内胚层，二者在早期胚胎发育中均发挥重要作用。通过对基因敲除小鼠的分析，已确定Gata-6和Gata-4在内脏内胚层分化中的关键作用。在此我们报告，在胚胎干细胞（ES细胞）中强制表达Gata-6或Gata-4足以诱导向ExE的正常分化程序。我们认为，这是关于转录因子异位表达诱导ES细胞发生生理分化事件的首篇报道。
