Epigenetic remodeling and stem cells

Epigenetic factors can alter DNA function without changing DNA sequence, and play important roles for determining the individual characteristics of different cell types. Three widely studied mechanisms of epigenetic regulation in cells are DNA methylation, histone modifications and microRNAs. Cells rely on these mechanisms for many of their functions and pass their epigenetic signatures to daughter cells. Recently, it has been shown that pluripotent cells not only express different genes compared to nonpluripotent cells, but also show different epigenetic profiles. These differences are thought to be important for pluripotency and unique epigenetic profiles keep cells pluripotent. In this review, we focus on the epigenetic remodeling and regulation in stem cells and different approaches taken to understand them.

Section editor:Peter Sartipy – Cellartis AB, Göteborg, Sweden