As a transcription factor of the Pit-Oct-Unc (POU) domain family, octamer-binding transcription factor 6 ( OCT6) participates in various aspects of stem cell development and differentiation. At present, however, its role in porcine-induced pluripotent stem cells (piPSCs) remains unclear. Here, we explored the function of OCT6 in piPSCs. We found that piPSCs overexpressing OCT6 maintained colony morphology and pluripotency under differentiation conditions, with a similar gene expression pattern to that of non-differentiated piPSCs. Functional analysis revealed that OCT6 attenuated the adverse effects of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling pathway inhibition on piPSC pluripotency by activating phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-protein kinase B (PI3K-AKT) signaling activity. Our research sheds new light on the mechanism by which OCT6 promotes PSC maintenance.
作为POU家族的转录因子， OCT6在干细胞发育和分化中发挥着不同的作用，但其在猪诱导多能干细胞（PiPSCs）中的作用尚不清楚。在此，我们探讨了 OCT6在PiPSCs中的作用。我们发现过表达 OCT6的piPSCs在分化条件下能够保持克隆形态和多能性，其基因表达模式与未分化的piPSCs相似。功能分析表明， OCT6通过激活PI3K-AKT信号通路，减轻了抑制ERK信号通路对piPSC多能性的不利影响。我们的研究为 OCT6促进多能干细胞维持的机制提供了新的线索。.
Keywords: MAPK/ERK; OCT6; PI3K/AKT; Pluripotency; piPSCs.