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Review
. 2016 Feb 2;17(2):199.
doi: 10.3390/ijms17020199.

Role of Epigenetics in Stem Cell Proliferation and Differentiation: Implications for Treating Neurodegenerative Diseases

Bhairavi Srinageshwar  1   2 , Panchanan Maiti  3   4   5   6 , Gary L Dunbar  7   8   9   10 , Julien Rossignol  11   12   13
Affiliations
Review

Role of Epigenetics in Stem Cell Proliferation and Differentiation: Implications for Treating Neurodegenerative Diseases

Bhairavi Srinageshwar et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

The main objectives of this review are to survey the current literature on the role of epigenetics in determining the fate of stem cells and to assess how this information can be used to enhance the treatment strategies for some neurodegenerative disorders, like Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. Some of these epigenetic mechanisms include DNA methylation and histone modifications, which have a direct impact on the way that genes are expressed in stem cells and how they drive these cells into a mature lineage. Understanding how the stem cells are behaving and giving rise to mature cells can be used to inform researchers on effective ways to design stem cell-based treatments. In this review article, the way in which the basic understanding of how manipulating this process can be utilized to treat certain neurological diseases will be presented. Different genetic factors and their epigenetic changes during reprogramming of stem cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have significant potential for enhancing the efficacy of cell replacement therapies.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Huntington’s disease; epigenetics; histone modifications; induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs); mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs); neural stem cells (NSCs); neurodegenerative diseases; stem cells.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Epigenetic memory at the cellular level. Epigenetic memory is maintained during differentiation of neurons and liver cells from the precursor embryonic cells (adopted from [19] Copyright 2013 with permission from Elsevier).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Waddington’s epigenetic landscape. This image provides an analogy of how the pluripotent stem cells give rise to specialized cells as they undergo epigenetic changes, such as methylation, acetylation and phosphorylation (adopted from [23] Copyright 2010 with permission from Elsevier).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Role of the polycomb group protein complex and the trithorax protein complex in neurogenesis. The trithorax complex (TrxG) is associated with the activation of histone, leading to neuronal differentiation, while the polycomb complex (PcG) is associated with repressive histones, leading to decreased proliferation (adopted from [68]).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Cell reprogramming. Waddington’s epigenetic landscape showing the trans-differentiation of differentiated cells back to their pluripotent state, thus generating induced pluripotent stem cells (adopted from [78] Copyright 2013 with permission form Company of Biologists.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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