Vitamin C facilitates pluripotent stem cell maintenance by promoting pluripotency gene transcription

Vitamin C has recently received attention because of its ability to improve induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) generation [1-3] and maintain a blastocyst-like state in ES cells [4]. However, the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. In this study, we found that vitamin C maintained the morphology of mouse embryonic stem cell (mESC) colonies and inhibited mESC differentiation. Gene expression profiling revealed that the genes down-regulated by vitamin C were grouped in the regulation of differentiation and development, while most of the up-regulated genes were enriched in the regulation of transcription involving numerous pluripotency factors, which was further confirmed by real time quantitative PCR. For the key pluripotency factor Nanog, vitamin C increased its promoter activity and protein level. In addition, pathway screening indicated that vitamin C may affect various signaling pathways. Our study provides new insights into vitamin C-mediated pluripotency maintenance of mESCs.