Histone Deacetylases in Neural Stem Cells and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Figure 2

Treatment of HDAC inhibitors enhances reprogramming efficiency. When reprogramming somatic cells to iPSCs by ectopic expression of the four transcription factors (Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc), the resulting reprogramming efficiency is low (iPSC: −HDACi). But with the use of HDAC inhibitors (HDACi), the reprogramming efficiency can improve by more than 100-fold (iPSC: +HDACi), especially when using the HDACi, valproic acid (VPA). Through this improvement, it is suggested that histone modification plays an important role in inducing pluripotent stem cells.