Model human X chromosome random inactivation using naive human embryonic stem cells [2020-07-17]
X chromosome inactivation (XCI) is an important epigenetic event during early mammalian development. One of the two X chromosomes is randomly inactivated to ensure that gene expression level is consistent between XX and XY individuals. The X chromosome status in human early embryos is dramatically different from mouse. In addition, neither primed nor naive human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) were able to fully recapitulate X chromosome status in human preimplantation epiblast and they failed to execute random X chromosome ......
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Researchers depict genome-wide R-loop landscapes during human stem cell multi-lineage differentiation and reprogramming [2020-07-13]
Recently, scientists from the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Tsinghua University and Beijing Institute of Genomics of CAS have worked jointly and systematically characterized R-loops, DNA methylation, histone modifications, and chromatin accessibility in human pluripotent cells and their differentiated derivatives. Notably, they demonstrated a multi-faceted role of R-loops in cell fate determination that may serve as an additional layer of modulation on cell fate memory and cell plasticity.......
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Researchers Discover That Overcoming the Genomic Imprinting Barrier Improves Mammal Cloning [2020-06-19]
Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT, also known as cloning) technology holds great potential in animal production and regenerative medicine. However, the extremely low efficiency and frequently observed abnormalities in cloned embryos limit the development and application of this technology. Although the cloned embryos harbor complete genomic DNA sequence, multiple epigenetic barriers are the limiting factors of cloning efficiency....
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Researchers Provide Novel Insight into Primate Islet Aging [2020-06-11]
As the population ages, the incidence of diabetes in China has risen sharply over the past 30 years. At present, the number of patients with diabetes in China has exceeded 100 million, along with nearly 500 million pre-diabetic adults (impaired glucose tolerance), which poses a serious challenge to the prevention and treatment of aging-related chronic diseases (e.g. diabetes) in China. Aging-related progressive degeneration of pancreatic islet cells contributes to impaired glucose tolerance and diabetes. However, the high......
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Scientists reveal novel epigenetic mechanism underlying human stem cell aging [2020-05-20]
Zinc finger protein with KRAB and SCAN domains 3 (ZKSCAN3) is a member of the Kru？ppel-associated box domain zinc finger protein (KRAB-ZFP) family, with a SCAN domain in the N-terminus (SCAN-ZFPs). Emerging evidence has shown that ZKSCAN3 negatively regulates autophagosome formation by repressing the expression of autophagy-related genes. However, previous studies on ZKSCAN3 have been primarily based on tumor cell lines or animal models whereas the functions of ZKSCAN3 in normal human diploid cells was unclear....
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Researchers Provide Novel Insights into Primate Arterial Aging [2020-05-08]
Cardiovascular disorders are leading causes of morbidity and death worldwide. Age-associated changes in arterial properties, such as endothelial dysfunction and structural alterations, are considered to be initial events in the development of atherosclerosis. Due to the high heterogeneity of vascular cells from different sources, our understanding of human arterial aging and the development of interventions against human arterial aging and associated diseases are hindered....
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Novel Insight into the first multi-tissue single-cell transcriptomic atlases in Rattus norvegicus aging and CR [2020-02-28]
The progressive functional decline in various organs with age contributes to a series of aging-related diseases, such as neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. The diversity of cell types underlies the heterogeneity and complexity of tissues and organs, leading to distinct cellular and molecular features in different tissues and organs during aging. It is difficult to accurately reveal the cellular and molecular changes in different cell types during aging via traditional research techniques. In......
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Neural precursor cells regulate the development of microglia during the early brain. [2019-11-14]
Microglia, the resident immune cells of the central nervous system, play an important role in the development of brain. These important effects of microglia are related to their specific spatial and temporal distribution in the embryonic cerebral cortex, but how microglia develop in the brain during neurogenesis, and whether neural stem cells affect the development of microglia are still unclear....
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Neural precursor cells regulate the development of microglia [2019-11-12]
Microglia, the resident immune cells of the central nervous system, play an important role in the brain and protect the brain from the invasion and destruction of virus and bacteria. Microglia are involved in brain damage, inflammation and neurodegenerative diseases. In addition to its role in adult physiological and pathological conditions, microglia exert the function in the whole stage of brain development. These important effects of microglia are related to their specific spatial and temporal distribution in the embry......
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Primate embryos grown in the lab to gastrulation stage [2019-11-07]
Peri-implantation embryonic development is a critical process during which the embryo establishes a close relationship with maternal uterus, forms the basic body plan, and differentiates into three germ layers (endoderm, mesoderm and ectoderm) through gastrulation1. The endoderm gives rise to most of the internal linings of the embryo body, including the lungs, the liver, the pancreas and the intestinal tract; the mesoderm differentiates into the heart, the skin, the muscle system and the bones; the ectoderm forms the ner......
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