Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have found that adult cells can be reprogrammed and back to embryonic state, which provides possibility for the use of adult stem cells to treat disease. Although there are many researches addressing stem cell proliferation and self-renewal, its mechanism is still little known.
OBJECTIVE: To summarize the ability and mechanism of stem cells maintaining pluripotency at home and abroad.
METHODS: Pubmed database was searched for the related articles about the mechanism of stem cells maintaining pluripotency published from January 1993 to March 2010. The key words were “stem cells, pluripotency, mechanism”, which were used for selecting some related articles by inputting in title and abstract. The literatures in the same field that published recently or in authorized journals were included. There were 122 articles after the initial survey. Finally, 33 articles were included according to inclusion criteria.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Stem cells maintain pluripotency and self-renewal ability by regulating transcription factor expression and epigenetics, as well as microRNAs (miRNAs) effects. The factors such as Oct4, Nanog and Sox2 in regulatory network and epigenetics modification such as histone and DNA methylation and miRNAs exert interactions to inhibit gene expression that promotes stem cell differentiation, which finally forms a regulatory network to maintain stem cell pluripotency and self-renewal.