The pluripotency transcription factor OCT4 represses heme oxygenase‐1 gene expression

Abstract

In embryonic stem (ES) cells, oxidative stress control is crucial for genomic stability, self-renewal, and cell differentiation. Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) is a key player of the antioxidant system and is also involved in stem cell differentiation and pluripotency acquisition. We found that the HO-1 gene is expressed in ES cells and induced after promoting differentiation. Moreover, downregulation of the pluripotency transcription factor (TF) OCT4 increased HO-1 mRNA levels in ES cells, and analysis of ChIP-seq public data revealed that this TF binds to the HO-1 gene locus in pluripotent cells. Finally, ectopic expression of OCT4 in heterologous systems repressed a reporter carrying the HO-1 gene promoter and the endogenous gene. Hence, this work highlights the connection between pluripotency and redox homeostasis.

AKT1 induces Nanog promoter in a SUMOylation-dependent manner in different pluripotent contexts

“…2D and E. The efficacy of each shRNA showed a significant reduction in the expression of each of the TFs evaluated compared to the shGFP (Additional file 1: Figure S5), similar to our previous works [51][52][53][54][55][56][57]. Surprisingly, none of the shRNA targeting Oct4, Sox2 or Nanog, modified the previously reported response of the Nanog promoter to AKT compared to the control shRNA (Fig.…”