Abstract
There is increasing evidence that some kinds of glial cells in central nervous system (CNS) can behave as multipotent neural stem cells (NSCs) and generate neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes in vivo and in vitro. However it is still unknown how such glial cells acquire multipotentiality. Oligodendrocyte precursor cells, which exist in many area in CNS, can also behave as multipotent NSC when the cells are exposed to specific conditions. Recently we have shown that sox2, which is an essential transcription factor in NSCs, is reactivated in the OPC reversion. We have also shown that in the reversion SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex is recruited to an enhancer in the sox2 promoter and lysine 4 and 9 of histone H3 in the enhancer are methylated and acethylated, respectively. We propose that the reversion of OPCs to NSCs depends on extensive chromatin remodeling, which is in part mediated by SWI/SNF. [J Physiol Sci. 2006;56 Suppl:S47]
