Nuclear Receptors in Regulation of Mouse ES Cell Pluripotency and Differentiation

Embryonic stem (ES) cells have great therapeutic potential because they are capable of indefinite self-renewal and have the potential to differentiate into over 200 different cell types that compose the human body. The switch from the pluripotent phenotype to a differentiated cell involves many complex signaling pathways including those involving LIF/Stat3 and the transcription factors Sox2, Nanog and Oct-4. Many nuclear receptors play an important role in the maintenance of pluripotence (ERR [Formula: see text] , SF-1, LRH-1, DAX-1) repression of the ES cell phenotype (RAR, RXR, GCNF) and also the differentiation of ES cells (PPAR [Formula: see text]). Here we review the roles of the nuclear receptors involved in regulating these important processes in ES cells.