BACKGROUND C-MYC, LIN28, OCT4, KLF4, NANOG and SOX2 are stem cell related factors. We detected whether these factors express in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) tissues to study their correlations with the clinical and pathological characteristics. METHODS The expressions of c-MYC, LIN28, SOX2, KLF4, OCT4 and NANOG in 30 RCC patients and 5 non-RCC patients were detected with quantitative real-time ...

Embryonic stem (ES) cell pluripotency and differentiation are controlled by a network of transcription factors and signaling molecules. Transcription factors such as Oct4 and Nanog are required for self-renewal and maintain the undifferentiated state of ES cells. Decreases in the expression of these factors indicate the initiation of differentiation of ES cells. Inactivation of the gene encodin...

Mouse pre-implantation development gives rise to the blastocyst, which is made up of at least three distinct cell types: the trophectoderm (TE) that surrounds a cavity, and an inner cell mass (ICM) comprising the primitive endoderm (PE) and epiblast (EPI). However, the underlying mechanisms involved in patterning the cleavage-stage embryo are still unresolved. By analyzing the distribution of t...

Embryonic stem (ES) cell pluripotency is dependent upon sustained expression of the key transcriptional regulators Oct4, Nanog, and Sox2. Dissection of the regulatory networks downstream of these transcription factors has provided critical insight into the molecular mechanisms that regulate ES cell pluripotency and early differentiation. Here we describe a role for Zic3, a member of the Gli fam...

Activation of the stem cell transcriptional circuitry is an important event in cancer development. Although cancer cells demonstrate a stem cell-like gene expression signature, the epigenetic regulation of pluripotency-associated genes in cancers remains poorly understood. In this study, we characterized the epigenetic regulation of the pluripotency-associated genes NANOG, OCT4, c-MYC, KLF4, an...

BACKGROUND The pluripotent state in embryonic stem (ES) cells is controlled by a core network of transcription factors that includes Nanog, Oct4 and Sox2. Nanog is required to reach pluripotency during somatic reprogramming and is the only core factor whose overexpression is able to oppose differentiation-promoting signals. Additionally, Nanog expression is known to fluctuate in ES cells, and d...

Nanog has an important role in pluripotency induction in bovines and snow leopards. To examine whether it was required for wild felids globally, we examined the induction of pluripotency in felids from Asia (Bengal tiger, Panthera tigris), Africa (serval, Leptailurus serval), and the Americas (jaguar, Panthera onca). Dermal fibroblasts were transduced with genes encoding the human transcription...

Cell fate decisions during development are governed by multi-factorial regulatory mechanisms including chromatin remodeling, DNA methylation, binding of transcription factors to specific loci, RNA and protein synthesis. However, the which such “dimensions” coordinate cell currently poorly understood. Here we quantified multi-dimensional molecular changes that occur in mouse embryonic stem cells...