Due to Thanksgiving happening on our usual timeslot, the Journal Club returns on December 1st at 12 Eastern. The show will be livestreamed on the Lifespan.io Facebook channel and hosted by Dr. Oliver Medvedik. This month, we will be taking a look at a new paper relating to partial cellular reprogramming and includes Manuel Serrano among the various authors. The open access paper is called Vitamin B12 is a limiting factor for induced cellular plasticity and tissue repair.
If you want to learn more about partial cellar reprogramming and the Yamanaka factors that allow cells to be changed into other cell types and even reverse cellular age, check out our topic below.
Abstract
Transient reprogramming by the expression of OCT4, SOX2, KLF4 and MYC (OSKM) is a therapeutic strategy for tissue regeneration and rejuvenation, but little is known about its metabolic requirements. Here we show that OSKM reprogramming in mice causes a global depletion of vitamin B12 and molecular hallmarks of methionine starvation. Supplementation with vitamin B12 increases the efficiency of reprogramming both in mice and in cultured cells, the latter indicating a cell-intrinsic effect. We show that the epigenetic mark H3K36me3, which prevents illegitimate initiation of transcription outside promoters (cryptic transcription), is sensitive to vitamin B12 levels, providing evidence for a link between B12 levels, H3K36 methylation, transcriptional fidelity and efficient reprogramming. Vitamin B12 supplementation also accelerates tissue repair in a model of ulcerative colitis. We conclude that vitamin B12, through its key role in one-carbon metabolism and epigenetic dynamics, improves the efficiency of in vivo reprogramming and tissue repair.
