MicroRNAs与胚胎干细胞研究

MicroRNAs and Embryonic Stem Cell Research

MicroRNAs(miRNAs)是一种大小约20～25个碱基的非编码小分子RNA,一般通过特异性抑制靶蛋白翻译或降解靶基因mRNA发挥负调控基因表达的作用.胚胎干细胞(embryonic stem cells,ES细胞)是从植入前早期胚胎内细胞团或原始生殖细胞中分离得到并能在体外长期培养的高度未分化的多能细胞系,在揭示胚胎早期发育机理、药物筛选、临床再生医学等领域具有广泛的应用前景.最近研究发现miRNAs在ES细胞自我更新和分化过程中均发挥着重要的调控作用,但具体调控机制尚未完全阐明.进一步深入研究miRNAs在ES细胞中的作用,全面了解ES细胞自我更新和定向分化的机制是实现ES细胞广阔临床应用前景的基础.

MicroRNAs （miRNAs） represent a novel class of small endogenous non-coding RNAs with 20- 25nt which can negatively regulate gene expression by inhibiting translation of target mRNAs or cleaving target mRNAs. Embryonic stem （ES） cells are pluripotent cells derived from inner cell mass of the blastocyst-stage embryo before implanting or isolated from primordial germ cells, which can be cultured .indefinitely in undifferentiated state in vitro. ES ceils have a broad application in studying mechanisms underlying early embryonic development, pharmaceutical research, clinical regenerative medicine, and so on. Recently, it has been found that miRNAs should play a crucial role in the self-renewal and differentiation of ES cells, while the accurate regulatory mechanisms have not been completely elucidated. Further studying the role of miRNAs in ES cells and comprehensively understanding the mechanisms underlying ES cell self-renewal and directed differentiation are the bases for wide applications of ES cells in the clinical regeneration medicine in the future.