Vitamin C Influences Gene Activity In Stem Cells

Featured Article Academic Journal Main Category: Stem Cell Research Also Included In: Nutrition / Diet;Fertility;Cancer / Oncology Article Date: 02 Jul 2013 - 3:00 PDT

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Senior author and stem-cell scientist Miguel Ramalho-Santos of the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and colleagues write about their findings in a June 30th online issue of Nature. In cells, not all genes are active all the time. There is a regulated pattern of gene expression that switches genes on and off. This is held in the epigenome, the set of instructions that get passed on with DNA about how to control the DNA.

One of the mechanisms the epigenome uses to regulate gene expression is DNA methylation. In DNA methylation, the epigenome adds a methyl group to a selected point on the genome to stop certain genes from being expressed.

What Ramalho-Santos and colleagues discovered is that vitamin C plays a crucial role in helping to release the brakes that stop certain genes from being expressed in stem cells in embryos soon after fertilization when the sperm fuses with the egg.

The team came across the result while comparing different types of nutrient for growing mouse embryonic stem cells in the lab.

In a statement, Ramalho-Santos explains that they didn't set out to find what they discovered, "We bumped into this result," he adds.

He and his colleagues wanted to find out how different ingredients in the growth medium affected gene activity in the stem cells. They found adding vitamin C increased the enzyme activity that releases the brakes that normally hold back certain gene expressions.

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Vitamin C Influences Gene Activity In Stem Cells