The pluripotency transcription factor Nanog represses Glutathione reductase gene expression in mouse embryonic stem cells BMC

SOLARI C; PETRONE MV; TORO A; VAZQUEZ ECHEGARAY C; COSENTINO, MARÍA SOLEDAD; WAISMAN A; FRANCIA M; BARAÑAO L; MIRIUKA S; GUBERMAN A

BMC Research Notes

Springer

Año: 2019

1756-0500

Objective: Redox homeostasis maintenance is essential tobring about cellular functions. Particularly, embryonic stem cells (ESCs) havehigh fidelity mechanisms for DNA repair, high activity of different antioxidantenzymes and low levels of oxidative stress. Although the expression and activityof antioxidant enzymes are reduced throughout the differentiation, theknowledge about the transcriptional regulation of genes involved in defenseagainst oxidative stress is yet restricted. Since glutathione is a centralcomponent of a complex system involved in preserving cellular redox status, weaimed to study whetherthe expression of the Glutathione reductase (Gsr) gene, which encodes anessential enzyme for cellular redox homeostasis, is modulated by thetranscription factors critical for self-renewal and pluripotency of ESCs.Results:  We found that Gsr gene isexpressed in ESCs during the pluripotent state and it was upregulated when thesecells were induced to differentiate, concomitantly with Nanog decreasedexpression. Moreover, we found an increase in Gsr mRNA levels when Nanog wasdownregulated by a specific shRNA targeting this transcription factor in ESCs. Ourresults suggest that Nanog represses Gsr gene expression in ESCs, evidencing arole of this crucial pluripotency transcription factor in preservation of redoxhomeostasis in stem cells.