| First Author | Molofsky AV | Year | 2003 |
| Journal | Nature | Volume | 425 |
| Issue | 6961 | Pages | 962-7 |
| PubMed ID | 14574365 | Mgi Jnum | J:89979 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:3042080 | Doi | 10.1038/nature02060 |
| Citation | Molofsky AV, et al. (2003) Bmi-1 dependence distinguishes neural stem cell self-renewal from progenitor proliferation. Nature 425(6961):962-7 |
| abstractText | Stem cells persist throughout life by self-renewing in numerous tissues including the central and peripheral nervous systems. This raises the issue of whether there is a conserved mechanism to effect self-renewing divisions. Deficiency in the polycomb family transcriptional repressor Bmi-1 leads to progressive postnatal growth retardation and neurological defects. Here we show that Bmi-1 is required for the self-renewal of stem cells in the peripheral and central nervous systems but not for their survival or differentiation. The reduced self-renewal of Bmi-1-deficient neural stem cells leads to their postnatal depletion. In the absence of Bmi-1, the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor gene p16Ink4a is upregulated in neural stem cells, reducing the rate of proliferation. p16Ink4a deficiency partially reverses the self-renewal defect in Bmi-1-/- neural stem cells. This conserved requirement for Bmi-1 to promote self-renewal and to repress p16Ink4a expression suggests that a common mechanism regulates the self-renewal and postnatal persistence of diverse types of stem cell. Restricted neural progenitors from the gut and forebrain proliferate normally in the absence of Bmi-1. Thus, Bmi-1 dependence distinguishes stem cell self-renewal from restricted progenitor proliferation in these tissues. |
