EPIGENETICS AND STEM CELLS: A NEW PATH FOR UNDERSTANDING PLASTICITY, DIFFERENTIATION AND IMPRINTING MECHANISMS

Abstract

The characteristic of plasticity, especially of embryonic stem cells (ESC), confers them capacity to differentiate in any cellular type. The differentiation processes occur through loss of plasticity, specializing cells by blocking the expression of non-related genes. The epigenetics suggests explanations for this capacity, by regulatory processes that are not contained in the genome. The elucidation of the processes involved in the cellular differentiation phenomena is fundamental towards the development of cellular therapy techniques and can be extrapolated to studies about other phenomena, like the cellular malignant transformation. This review summarizes and discusses key-points on the recent topic of the stem-cells epigenetics.