Progress on totipotent proliferation of embryonic stem cell regulated by Oct4 / 第二军医大学学报

The Oct4,a POU transcription factor belongs to class Ⅴ of POU proteins, is expressed in mouse totipotent embryonic stem and germ cells. Oct4 plays a critical role in maintaining pluripotency of stem cell when it differentiates into a trophectoderm lineage at early stage of mouse embryo. Oct4 expression appears to be regulated by a positional effect as well as specific regulating elements of Oct4 such as proximal enhancer (PE) and distal enhancer (DE). Oct4 has both repression and activation effects in regulating transcription,and the activation has 3 models: distance dependent transactivation, conformational transactivation and Oct4 dimers dependent transactivation.