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Review
. 2017 Feb;74(3):487-493.
doi: 10.1007/s00018-016-2358-z. Epub 2016 Sep 10.

DNA repair mechanisms in embryonic stem cells

Xuemei Fu  1 , Ke Cui  2 , Qiuxiang Yi  2 , Lili Yu  3 , Yang Xu  4   5   6
Affiliations
Review

DNA repair mechanisms in embryonic stem cells

Xuemei Fu et al. Cell Mol Life Sci. 2017 Feb.

Abstract

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) can undergo unlimited self-renewal and retain the pluripotency to differentiate into all cell types in the body. Therefore, as a renewable source of various functional cells in the human body, ESCs hold great promise for human cell therapy. During the rapid proliferation of ESCs in culture, DNA damage, such as DNA double-stranded breaks, will occur in ESCs. Therefore, to realize the potential of ESCs in human cell therapy, it is critical to understand the mechanisms how ESCs activate DNA damage response and DNA repair to maintain genomic stability, which is a prerequisite for their use in human therapy. In this context, it has been shown that ESCs harbor much fewer spontaneous mutations than somatic cells. Consistent with the finding that ESCs are genetically more stable than somatic cells, recent studies have indicated that ESCs can mount more robust DNA damage responses and DNA repair than somatic cells to ensure their genomic integrity.

Keywords: DNA damage response; DNA repair; Embryonic stem cells; Genetic stability; Pluripotency.

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