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Stem Cell Epigenetics

  • Chapter
Book cover Regulatory Networks in Stem Cells

Part of the book series: Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine ((STEMCELL))

  • 1347 Accesses

Abstract

Epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in gene expression that occur independently of alterations in the primary DNA sequence. Normal development requires a carefully orchestrated epigenetic program on both a global and gene-specific/tissue-specific level. A tightly regulated program of active and repressive histone modifications working in close concert with the methylation of CpG dinucleotides in DNA are responsible for this epigenetic reprogramming, which includes the permanent silencing of genes required for stem/progenitor cell maintenance and the variable regulation of tissue/cell specific activation of genes required for successful differentiation of alternate cell lineages. In this chapter, we will discuss the normal stem/ progenitor cell epigenetic remodeling proteins, including polycomb group (PcG) proteins, and the histone modifications that help modulate gene expression during development. We will highlight the essential role of DNA methylation in gene silencing programs during normal development, including both maternal and paternal imprinting and x-chromosome inactivation, and the permanent silencing of pluripotency-associated genes with terminal differentiation. We will conclude with a more extensive discussion of how the regulatory networks controlling stem cell epigenetics may go awry in cells that give rise to tumors and during tumor progression. The large numbers of epigenetically silenced genes that may be present in any given tumor, and the clustering of silenced genes within single cell pathways, begs the question of whether gene silencing is a series of random events resulting in an enhanced survival of a premalignant clone, or whether silencing is the result of a directed, instructive program for silencing initiation reflective of the cells of origin for tumors. In this regard, the current review stresses the latter hypothesis and the important possibility that the program is linked, at least for silencing of some cancer genes, to the epigenetic control of stem/precursor cell gene expression patterns.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cancer Biology Division, The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Johns Hopkins University Medical Institutions, 1650 Orleans Street, Suite 541, Baltimore, MD 21231

    Joyce E. Ohm & Stephen B. Baylin

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  1. Joyce E. Ohm
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  2. Stephen B. Baylin
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Correspondence to Stephen B. Baylin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA

    Vinagolu K. Rajasekhar MSc, MPhil, PhD

  2. Invitrogen Corporation, Frederick, MD, USA

    Mohan C. Vemuri Ph.D.

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© 2009 Humana Press, a part of Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, a part of Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Ohm, J.E., Baylin, S.B. (2009). Stem Cell Epigenetics. In: Rajasekhar, V.K., Vemuri, M.C. (eds) Regulatory Networks in Stem Cells. Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-227-8_19

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