Inhibition of Class I Histone Deacetylase Enhances Self-Reprogramming of Spermatogonial Stem Cells into Pluripotent Stem Cells
Yukyeong Lee, Seung-Won Lee, Dahee Jeong, Hye‐Jeong Lee, Na Young Choi, Jin Seok Bang, Seokbeom Ham, Kinarm Ko
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) are the most primitive cells in spermatogenesis and are the only adult stem cells capable of passing on the genome of a given species to the next generation. SSCs are the only adult stem cells known to exhibit high Oct4 expression and can be induced to self-reprogram into pluripotent cells depending on culture conditions. Epigenetic modulation is well known to be involved in the induction of pluripotency of somatic cells. However, epigenetic modulation in self-reprogramming of SSCs into pluripotent cells has not been studied. Methods and Results: In this study, we examined the involvement of epigenetic modulation by assessing whether self-reprogramming of SSCs is enhanced by treatment with epigenetic modulators. We found that second-generation selective class I HDAC inhibitors increased SSC reprogramming efficiency, whereas non-selective HDAC inhibitors had no effect. Conclusions: . Our results suggest that the mechanism of SSC reprogramming by epigenetic modulator can be used for important applications in epigenetic reprogramming research.