Circular ribonucleic acid (circRNA) might have important functions, including the regulation of gene expression, and better understanding of circRNAs could be beneficial to the development of medical technologies, a study by Academia Sinica researchers found.
When cells in the human body age or are injured, pluripotent stem cells provide a means for repair, as they have the potential to be induced into a variety of different cell types to replace dysfunctional cells or regrow damaged tissues, the study said.
Researchers around the world are studying pluripotent stem cells in the hopes of understanding their developmental biology and disease pathogenesis or for the development of new drugs.
A team led by Kuo Hung-chih (郭紘志), an associate research fellow in the Institute of Cellular and Organismic Biology, discovered a new mechanism that regulates pluripotency — the ability of certain substances to produce several distinct biological responses — and differentiation machinery in cells.
In the mechanism, circRNA in pluripotent stem cells plays a functional role in determining whether a cell remains pluripotent or begins to differentiate.
In the past, circRNAs were considered mistakes in RNA processing, but new research shows that circRNAs might have important functions.
Kuo’s team found that human pluripotent stem cells contain high levels of certain circRNAs, and the circRNA circBIRC6 acts to regulate stem cell pluripotency.
Pluripotent stem cells can be either embryonic stem cells (ESC) or induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), and while the former are derived from embryos, the latter can be derived from various types of somatic cells, making them a potentially abundant source of pluripotent stem cells, Kuo said.
By regulating circRNA expression to enhance control over stem cell pluripotency and differentiation, scientists could generate specific somatic cell types from pluripotent stem cells or produce better, more functional iPSCs, Kuo added.
In addition to potential clinical applications, understanding the biology of circRNAs could also benefit innovative medical technologies, such as diagnostic tools or treatments for various diseases, Kuo said.
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