Regulation of embryonic stem cell self-renewal by the Zscan4 family of Zinc finger proteins

干细胞在我们的一生中都存在于我们的身体中，它们非常重要，因为它们确保受损和衰竭的细胞死亡时，有新细胞的供应来取代它们。一些器官和组织具有替代细胞的巨大能力，例如血液、肝脏和肠道。然而，大脑和心脏等器官的修复和再生能力非常有限。干细胞已经从各种成人来源中分离出来，包括骨髓、肠道和肌肉，也可以从早期胚胎中分离出来。研究表明，这些干细胞有两个显著的特性。它们可以分裂形成两个相同的干细胞（自我更新），也可以形成许多其他类型的细胞（分化）。目前人们对利用这些独特的特性非常感兴趣，因为通过使用干细胞，有可能在实验室中产生细胞，这些细胞可以用来替换体内受损的组织，或者用来鉴定更安全、更有效的药物。许多慢性疾病目前无法得到有效治疗，因为细胞损失是其根本原因，例如1型糖尿病。帕金森吗?S疾病和基于干细胞的疗法为疾病患者提供了令人兴奋的替代疗法。然而，在将这些进步应用于现代医学实践之前，还需要进行更多的研究来了解干细胞的行为。这项研究计划的总体目标是更详细地了解控制干细胞自我更新能力的过程。干细胞内的几个信号在控制自我更新中是重要的，我们最近的研究已经确定了这一过程的一个新的调节器。我们通过分析在胚胎干细胞开始分化后早期表达变化的基因，确定了这种新的调节因子。这个基因被预测控制其他基因的调控，我们现在希望对此进行更详细的研究。通过细胞、遗传和生化实验，我们将确定这种基因在胚胎干细胞中的作用。通过更详细地了解控制干细胞自我更新的过程，我们应该能够将这些知识应用于干细胞在再生医学和药物发现中的开发。基于干细胞的策略为许多慢性病患者提供了真正的希望，这里提出的研究可能在中长期内带来真正的好处。

Stem cells are present within our bodies throughout our lives and are very important because they make sure that as damaged and worn out cells die, there is a supply of new cells to replace them. Some organs and tissues have a tremendous capacity to replace cells, e.g. the blood, the liver and the gut. However, organs such as the brain and heart have very limited capacity for repair and regeneration. Stem cells have been isolated from a variety of adult sources including bone marrow, gut and muscle and also from early stage embryos. Research has shown that these stem cells have two remarkable properties. They can divide to form two identical stem cells (self-renew themselves) or they can form many other types of cells (differentiate). There is currently great interest in harnessing these unique properties because by using stem cells it may be possible to generate cells in the laboratory, that can be used to either replace damaged tissues inside the body or to identify safer and more effective medicines. Many chronic diseases cannot currently be effectively treated because loss of cells is the underlying cause, e.g. type 1 diabetes. Parkinson?s disease and stem cell-based therapies offer exciting alternative treatments for disease sufferers. However, much more research needs to be carried out to understand stem cell behaviour before such advances will be brought into modern day medical practice. The overall objective of this research proposal is to understand in greater detail the processes that control the ability of stem cells to renew themselves. Several signals within stem cells are known to be important in controlling self-renewal and our recent studies have identified a new regulator of this process. We identified this new regulator by analysing genes whose expression changes at early times after embryonic stem cells start to differentiate. This gene is predicted to control the regulation of other genes and we wish to now investigate this in more detail. Using cellular, genetic and biochemical experiments we will determine how this gene works in embryonic stem cells. By understanding the processes that control self-renewal of stem cells in more detail we should be able to apply this knowledge to the exploitation of stem cells in regenerative medicine and drug discovery. Stem cell-based strategies offer real hope for the sufferers of many chronic diseases and the research proposed here could be of real benefit in the medium to longer-term.