A gene that scientific dogma insists is inactive in adults actually plays a vital role in preventing the underlying cause of most heart attacks and strokes, researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have determined. The findings open a new avenue for battling those deadly conditions, and they raise the tantalizing prospect that doctors could use the gene to prevent or delay at least some of the effects of aging.
“Finding a way to augment the expression of this gene in adult cells may have profound implications for promoting health and possibly reversing some of the detrimental effects with aging,” said researcher Gary K. Owens, PhD, director of UVA’s Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center.
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Ref: Activation of the pluripotency factor OCT4 in smooth muscle cells is atheroprotective. Nature Medicine (16 May 2016) | DOI: 10.1038/nm.4109
ABSTRACT
Although somatic cell activation of the embryonic stem cell (ESC) pluripotency factor OCT4 has been reported, this previous work has been controversial and has not demonstrated a functional role for OCT4 in somatic cells. Here we demonstrate that smooth muscle cell (SMC)-specific conditional knockout of Oct4 in Apoe−/− mice resulted in increased lesion size and changes in lesion composition that are consistent with decreased plaque stability, including a thinner fibrous cap, increased necrotic core area, and increased intraplaque hemorrhage. Results of SMC-lineage-tracing studies showed that these effects were probably the result of marked reductions in SMC numbers within lesions and SMC investment within the fibrous cap, which may result from impaired SMC migration. The reactivation of Oct4 within SMCs was associated with hydroxymethylation of the Oct4 promoter and was hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α, encoded by HIF1A) and Krüppel-like factor-4 (KLF4)-dependent. These results provide the first direct evidence that OCT4 has a functional role in somatic cells, and they highlight the potential role of OCT4 in normal and diseased somatic cells.
Does this remind anyone of The Fountain...?
