Epigenetic regulation in adult neural stem cells

Jiajia Shi; Zilin Wang; Zhijun Wang; Guofeng Shao; Xiajun Li

doi:10.3389/fcell.2024.1331074

Epigenetic regulation in adult neural stem cells

Front Cell Dev Biol. 2024 Jan 31:12:1331074. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2024.1331074. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Jiajia Shi¹, Zilin Wang¹, Zhijun Wang², Guofeng Shao³, Xiajun Li¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China.
² Zhenhai Lianhua Hospital, Ningbo City, Zhejiang, China.
³ Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Lihuili Hospital Affiliated to Ningbo University, Ningbo City, Zhejiang, China.

Abstract

Neural stem cells (NSCs) exhibit self-renewing and multipotential properties. Adult NSCs are located in two neurogenic regions of adult brain: the ventricular-subventricular zone (V-SVZ) of the lateral ventricle and the subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus in the hippocampus. Maintenance and differentiation of adult NSCs are regulated by both intrinsic and extrinsic signals that may be integrated through expression of some key factors in the adult NSCs. A number of transcription factors have been shown to play essential roles in transcriptional regulation of NSC cell fate transitions in the adult brain. Epigenetic regulators have also emerged as key players in regulation of NSCs, neural progenitor cells and their differentiated progeny via epigenetic modifications including DNA methylation, histone modifications, chromatin remodeling and RNA-mediated transcriptional regulation. This minireview is primarily focused on epigenetic regulations of adult NSCs during adult neurogenesis, in conjunction with transcriptional regulation in these processes.

Keywords: DNA methylation; adult brain; epigenetic; neural stem cell (NSC); transcription.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The work in the authors’ laboratories has been supported by the grant from Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (22WZ2503400) to XL, the grant from Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (G2023013054) to XL and the major key project of Ningbo medical and health team (2022030107) to GS.