Lengner Christopher J, Welstead G Grant, Jaenisch Rudolf
The Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, Massachussets 01242, USA.
Cell Cycle. 2008 Mar 15;7(6):725-8. doi: 10.4161/cc.7.6.5573. Epub 2008 Jan 14.
Since its discovery as a critical regulator of pluripotency in embryonic stem (ES) cells and the inner cells mass of the developing blastocyst, the Pou domain-containing transcription factor Oct4 has become a proxy for "stemness" in numerous studies of somatic stem cells as its presence is often taken as evidence of pluripotency in these cells. Recent studies, however, have demonstrated that not only is Oct4 dispensable for maintaining potency in somatic stem cell compartments, but also that the methods applied to detect Oct4 and the interpretation of the resulting data may be flawed. Here we contrast pathways known to govern pluripotency in embryonic stem cells with those in adult stem cells and critically discuss the concept of pluripotency in adult stem cells of the mammalian soma.
自从作为胚胎干细胞和发育中囊胚内细胞团多能性的关键调节因子被发现以来，含Pou结构域的转录因子Oct4在众多体细胞干细胞研究中已成为“干性”的代名词，因为其存在常被视为这些细胞具有多能性的证据。然而，最近的研究表明，Oct4不仅对于维持体细胞干细胞区室的潜能并非必不可少，而且用于检测Oct4的方法以及对所得数据的解释可能存在缺陷。在这里，我们将已知调控胚胎干细胞多能性的途径与成体干细胞中的途径进行对比，并批判性地讨论哺乳动物躯体成体干细胞中多能性的概念。
