Adipogenesis licensing and execution are disparately linked to cell proliferation

• 来源期刊: 细胞研究（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2009,（2）
• 页码范围: 216-223
• 页数: 8页
• 语种: 英文
• DOI: 10.1038/cr.2008.319

摘要

Coordination of cell differentiation and proliferation is a key issue in the development process of multi-cellular organisms and stem cells. Here we provide evidence that the establishment of adipocyte differentiation of 3T3-LI cells requires two processes: the licensing of an adipogenesis gene-expression program within a particular growth-arrest stage, i.e., the contact-inhibition stage, and then the execution of this program in a cell-cycle-independent manner,by which the licensed progenitors are differentiated into adipocytes in the presence of inducing factors. Our results showed that differentiation licensing of 3T3-L1 cells during the contact-inhibition stage involved epigenetic modifications such as DNA methylation and histone modifications, whereas disturbing these epigenetic modifications by DNA methylation inhibitors or RNAi during the contact-inhibition stage significantly reduced adipogenesis efficiency.More importantly, when these licensed 3T3-LI cells were re-cultured under non-differentiating conditions or treated only with insulin, this adipogenesis commitment could be maintained from one cell generation to the next, whereby the licensed program could be activated in a cell-cycle-independent manner once these cells were subjected to adipogenesis-inducing conditions. This result suggests that differentiation licensing and differentiation execution can be uncoupled and disparately linked to cell proliferation. Our findings deliver a new concept that cell-fate decision can be subdivided into at least two stages, licensing and execution, which might have different regulatory relationships with cell proliferation, in addition, this new concept may provide a clue for developing new strategies against obesity.