Nuclear receptors in stem cell biology

Batteries of transcription factors have been proposed to control stem cell self-renewal and lineage progression by eliciting cascades of gene expression.(1) Nuclear receptors provide an ideal model to study the transcriptional regulation of gene expression because they can activate as well as repress gene expression through ligand binding and recruitment of transcriptional coactivators or corepressors.(2) Recent progress in defining specific roles of some nuclear receptors and their coregulators in stem cell self-renewal and differentiation provides a first glimpse of the regulatory events involved and is the beginning of a very promising area of research. This review summarizes the current state of knowledge regarding nuclear receptors and their roles in stem cell biology. These studies not only facilitate an understanding of stem cell biology but also provide a basis for the development of therapeutic drugs for the treatment of a variety of diseases.