Valdimarsdottir Gudrun, Mummery Christine
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland.
APMIS. 2005 Nov-Dec;113(11-12):773-89. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0463.2005.apm_3181.x.
The establishment of human embryonic stem (ES) cells has opened possibilities for cell replacement therapy to treat diseases such as diabetes, Parkinson's disease and cardiac myopathies. Self-renewal is one of the essential defining characteristics of stem cells. If stem cells are to have widespread therapeutic applications, it is essential to identify the extrinsic and intrinsic factors maintaining self-renewal, particularly in culture. Insight into the regulation of known self-renewal transcription factors and cross-talk between their upstream signalling pathways is important for a better understanding of how stem cell self-renewal and differentiation are related to downstream target genes. This may lead to the establishment of protocols for obtaining a large supply of ES cells. Here, we review the role that TGFbeta superfamily members are thought to play in self-renewal and differentiation of human and mouse ES cells. We focus on the prototype TGFbeta, TGFbeta1, activin A, nodal and bone morphogenetic proteins and their expression, activity and function in embryonic stem cells.
人类胚胎干细胞（ES细胞）的建立为细胞替代疗法治疗诸如糖尿病、帕金森氏病和心肌病等疾病开辟了可能性。自我更新是干细胞的基本定义特征之一。如果干细胞要得到广泛的治疗应用，识别维持自我更新的外在和内在因素至关重要，尤其是在培养过程中。深入了解已知自我更新转录因子的调控及其上游信号通路之间的相互作用，对于更好地理解干细胞自我更新和分化如何与下游靶基因相关联很重要。这可能会导致建立获取大量ES细胞的方案。在这里，我们综述了TGFβ超家族成员在人类和小鼠ES细胞自我更新和分化中被认为所起的作用。我们重点关注原型TGFβ、TGFβ1、激活素A、节点蛋白和骨形态发生蛋白及其在胚胎干细胞中的表达、活性和功能。
