Centre de Regulació Genòmica (CRG), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain.
Bioessays. 2010 Aug;32(8):669-79. doi: 10.1002/bies.201000016.
Epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation and post-translation modifications of histones, have been shown to play an important role in chromatin structure, promoter activity, and cellular reprogramming. Large protein complexes, such as Polycomb and trithorax, often harbor multiple activities which affect histone tail modification. Nevertheless, the mechanisms underlying the deposition of these marks, their propagation during cell replication, and the alteration on their distribution during transformation still require further study. Here we review recent data on those processes in both normal and cancer cells, and we propose that the unscheduled expression of oncogenic transcription factors causes reprogramming of normal cells into cancer stem cells.
表观遗传修饰，如 DNA 甲基化和组蛋白的翻译后修饰，已被证明在染色质结构、启动子活性和细胞重编程中发挥重要作用。大的蛋白质复合物，如 Polycomb 和 trithorax，通常具有多种影响组蛋白尾部修饰的活性。然而，这些标记物的沉积、在细胞复制过程中的传播以及在转化过程中分布的改变的机制仍需要进一步研究。在这里，我们综述了正常和癌细胞中这些过程的最新数据，并提出致癌转录因子的非正常表达导致正常细胞重编程为癌症干细胞。
