• Qiang Zhuang, Xiaobing Qing, Yue Ying, Haitao Wu, Christina Benda, Jiao Lin, Zhijian Huang, Longqi Liu, Yan Xu, Xichen Bao, Baoming Qin, Duanqing Pei, and Miguel A Esteban.
• Key Laboratory of Regenerative Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine, South China Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Guangzhou 510530, China and.
• J. Biol. Chem. 2013 Apr 26; 288 (17): 12022-31.

AbstractClass IIa histone deacetylases (HDACs) and myocyte enhancer factor 2 (MEF2) proteins compose a signaling module that orchestrates lineage specification during embryogenesis. We show here that this module also regulates the generation of mouse induced pluripotent stem cells by defined transcription factors. Class IIa HDACs and MEF2 proteins rise steadily during fibroblast reprogramming to induced pluripotent stem cells. MEF2 proteins tend to block the process by inducing the expression of Tgfβ cytokines, which impairs the necessary phase of mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition (MET). Conversely, class IIa HDACs endeavor to suppress the activity of MEF2 proteins, thus enhancing the MET and colony formation efficiency. Our work highlights an unexpected role for a developmental axis in somatic cell reprogramming and provides new insight into how the MET is regulated in this context.

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