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Down-regulation of specific gene expression by double-strand RNA induces neural stem cell differentiation in vitro

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Abstract

In the postgenomic era the elucidation of the physiological function of genes has become the rate-limiting step in the quest to understand the development and function of living organisms. Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) interferes with gene expression in various species, a phenomenon known as RNA interference (RNAi). We show here that RNAi is also effective in modifying gene expression in neural stem cell differentiation. The progenitor cells were obtained from E14 mouse embryonic forebrain and maintained using N-2 medium containing basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), epidermal growth factor (EGF) and B27.A gene (NM017084.1) was previously discovered and validated to express obviously differently between differentiated and undifferentiated neural stem cells in our laboratory. Here we report a long double-stranded RNA to knock out or knock down this gene. The results demonstrated that following RNAi inhibition of expression of the NM017084.1 gene, the differentiation of neural stem cells is accelerated. Thus the NM017084.1 gene may play a pivotal role in the process of differentiation of neural stem cells.

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Abbreviations

dsRNA:

double-stranded RNA

RNAi:

RNA interference

siRNAs:

small interfering RNAs

bFGF:

basic fibroblast growth factor

EGF:

epidermal growth factor

RT-PCR:

reverse transcript PCR

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Neural Molecular Biology, School of Life Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai, P.R. China

    Tieqiao Wen, Hailong Li, Hongsheng Song, Fuxue Chen, Cuiping Zhao, Wei Lu, Kuiyi Bao & Ye Jin

  2. School of Life Sciences, Shanghai University, 99 Shangda Road, Shanghai, 200436, People’s Republic of China

    Tieqiao Wen

Authors
  1. Tieqiao Wen
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  2. Hailong Li
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  3. Hongsheng Song
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  4. Fuxue Chen
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  5. Cuiping Zhao
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  6. Wei Lu
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  7. Kuiyi Bao
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  8. Ye Jin
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Correspondence to Tieqiao Wen.

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Wen, T., Li, H., Song, H. et al. Down-regulation of specific gene expression by double-strand RNA induces neural stem cell differentiation in vitro. Mol Cell Biochem 275, 215–221 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11010-005-2049-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11010-005-2049-9

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