MSCs are the most studied subtype of adult stem cells and have been derived from most postnatal organs and tissues. MSCs are defined as having the capacity to self-renew and to differentiate into both mesodermal and non-mesodermal lineages, and are immunosuppressive. For these properties, MSCs have been considered ideal candidates for regenerative medicine and have been used in several clinical trials. The difficulty, however, to preserve the potency of the cells during culture expansion and to monitor differentiation are obstacles in their use in the clinic and have emphasized the need to investigate molecular pathways underlying stem cell fate-decisions during differentiation in more detail. Hippo pathway was recently identified in Drosophila melanogaster and mammals, and controls organ size by regulating cell proliferation, apoptosis and differentiation. It is composed of a core of serine/threonine kinases and scaffold proteins that when activated, phosphorylate and inhibit yes-associated protein (YAP) transcriptional co-factor. Inactivation of YAP in some stem and progenitor cells by this pathway is required for their differentiation. In contrast, failure to inhibit YAP enhances proliferation and may cause oncogenic transformation. In the present study, the expression of multiple YAP variants was confirmed in human and mouse MSCs. In both human and mouse, YAP was inhibited in response to cell-contact inhibition and remained unchanged during in vitro chondrogenic differentiation. Overexpression of human (hYAP1) variant in C3H/10T1/2 cells did not appear to affect colony formation, cell cycle distribution or cell size, but increased cell proliferation, induced cell transformation and reduced the in vitro differentiation capacity of the cells towards the chondrogenic, adipogenic and osteogenic lineages. The effects of hYAP1 overexpression are hypothesized to be either a result of a nuclear co-factor function or indirectly via protein interactions in the cytoplasmic compartment. Hippo pathway and YAP are possible pharmacological targets for modulation of MSC function.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:569615 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Karystinou, Alexandra |
| Publisher | University of Aberdeen |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=192255 |
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