MiR-302 regulates pluripotency, teratoma formation and differentiation in stem cells via an AKT1/OCT4-dependent manner.

ABSTRACT: Pluripotency makes human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) promising for regenerative medicine, but the teratoma formation has been considered to be a major obstacle for their clinical applications. Here, we determined that the downregulation of miR-302 suppresses the teratoma formation, hampers the self-renewal and pluripotency, and promotes hPSC differentiation. The underlying mechanism is that the high endogenous expression of miR-302 suppresses the AKT1 expression by directly targeting its 3'UTR and subsequently maintains the pluripotent factor OCT4 at high level. Our findings reveal that miR-302 regulates OCT4 by suppressing AKT1, which provides hPSCs two characteristics related to their potential for clinical applications: the benefit of pluripotency and the hindrance of teratoma format

SUBMITTER: Li HL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4816169 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature