Fate determination in mesenchymal stem cells: A perspective from histone-modifying enzymes

Abstract

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) hold great promis for therapeutic use in regenerative medicine an tissue engineering. A detailed understanding of th molecular processes governing MSC fate determinatio will be instrumental in the application of MSCs. Muc progress has been made in recent years in defining th epigenetic events that control the differentiation o MSCs into different lineages. A complex network o transcription factors and histone modifiers, in concer with specific transcriptional co-Activators an co-repressors, activates or represses MSC differentiation In this review, we summarize recent progress i determining the effects of histone-modifying enzyme on the multilineage differentiation of MSCs. In addition we propose that the manipulation of histone signature associated with lineage-specific differentiation by smal molecules has immense potential for the advancemen of MSC-based regenerative medicine.