Gene Expression
Describing the Pathways of Regenerative Stem Cell Behavior
A review of PTEN negatively regulates neural stem cell self-renewal by modulating G0-G1 cell cycle entry.
Note: This is a review of the published article listed below. All information, quotes, figures, methods, and findings mentioned in this review are from that article, and are the property of its authors and/or the publication in which the article originally appeared.
Matthias Groszer and researchers at UCLA (2006) took on the daunting task of describing the aspects of the molecular pathways that regulate stem cell-like behavior, particularly the role of PTEN as a negative regulator of neural stem cell self-renewal and modulation of the G0-G1 cell cycle entry. Previous research has suggested that brain tumors might contain “cancer stem cells” that are critical for tumor growth, yet the molecular pathways governing such stem cell-like behavior remain largely elusive. The group used paired knockout and wild-type replicates hybridized onto two Agilent Mouse Development Oligo arrays with dye-flip for a total of six arrays. They observed an enhanced self-renewal capacity and G0-G1 cell cycle entry and decreased growth factor dependency of Pten null neural/stem progenitor cells. While this research enabled identification of mechanisms associated with increasing the available pool of self-renewing cells and the accumulation of further mutational events, further analysis of PTEN's function in human brain cancer stem cells, especially the G0-G1 cell cycle regulation, will provide both mechanistic insights and targets for treatment of glioblastoma multiforme in years to come.
Figure 1. Gene expression analysis.
(A) Microarray data can be classified into two major groups, genes that are up-regulated in Pten null neurosphere cultures (upper box) and genes that are down-regulated in Pten null neurosphere cultures (lower box). (B) Gene Ontology analysis.
Title: PTEN negatively regulates neural stem cell self-renewal by modulating G0-G1 cell cycle entry.
Journal: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Jan 3; 103(1): 111-116.
Authors: Groszer M, Erickson R, Scripture-Adams DD, Dougherty JD, Le Belle J, Zack JA, Geschwind DH, Liu X, Kornblum HI, Wu H.
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