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Stem cell "immortality protein" discovered
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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An enzyme has been identified that facilitates the histone grip on stem cell genes needed to maintain their immortality and multifunctionality.
Researchers from the University of Michigan (USA) have discovered a protein responsible for the immortality and "eternal youth" of stem cells. They are known to be able to transform into other types of cells, or they can remain undifferentiated, multiplying, but at the same time retaining the property of "omnipotence".
Obviously, in this case we are talking about choosing one or another genetic program. And the most common way to switch genetic programs is epigenetic manipulations (modification of histones, DNA, etc.). Histones serve to package DNA, and those parts of it that are tightly packed will be inaccessible to enzymes synthesizing mRNA, that is, these genes will be silent. If DNA is free of histones, then its genes will be open to work with them.
Histones, in turn, can behave differently depending on what modifications they carry. If acetyl groups are attached to histones, they are unable to interact tightly with each other, and therefore the DNA will be open to transcription factors. Accordingly, histone acetyltransferase enzymes, which supply histones with acetyl groups, work as DNA activators.
If a cell does not want to differentiate and wants to remain in the stem entity, it needs to maintain the activity of a certain set of genes responsible for this state of immortality. As the researchers write in the journal Cell Stem Cell, the only enzyme that does this job in stem cells is the Mof protein. It is worth emphasizing that the scientists worked with pluripotent embryonic stem cells, which can transform into any cell in the body. That is, histone acetyltransferase Mof is responsible for the most general non-specialization of stem cells, for, so to speak, their original immortality.
Most studies are devoted to the implementation of a particular specialization program. That is, scientists usually find out which epigenetic control proteins are responsible for activating genes of the epithelial, neural, or other developmental pathway. In this case, the opposite was done: the authors suggested that the immortality of stem cells, like their differentiation, is subject to a certain program. The gene encoding Mof is unusually conservative, its sequence is the same in such different organisms as mice and fruit flies, so we can assume with a high degree of certainty that in humans it looks and works the same as in other animals. Perhaps, controlling this gene will help in the future to create and maintain lines of induced pluripotent stem cells, which are the hopes of regenerative medicine.