Oct4: the final frontier, differentiation defining pluripotency

Dev Cell. 2013 Jun 24;25(6):547-8. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2013.06.002.

Abstract

The transcription factor OCT4 is a cornerstone of pluripotency, and yet OCT4 has also been associated with differentiation in a number of contexts. Reporting in this issue of Developmental Cell, Frum et al. (2013) show that OCT4's major early activity in the blastocyst is to support primitive endoderm differentiation.

Publication types

  • Comment

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Blastocyst / physiology*
  • Embryonic Stem Cells / physiology*
  • Endoderm / embryology*
  • Female
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental*
  • Male
  • Octamer Transcription Factor-3 / physiology*
  • Pregnancy

Substances

  • Octamer Transcription Factor-3
  • Pou5f1 protein, mouse