Eradicating the mediators of neuronal death with a fine-tooth comb.
Ischemic tolerance is an evolutionarily conserved form of cerebral plasticity in which a brief period of cerebral ischemia (called ischemic preconditioning) confers transient tolerance to a subsequent ischemic challenge in the brain. Polycomb group proteins are gene-silencing factors that are abundant and widely distributed during embryogenesis and are essential to epigenetic cellular memory, pluripotency, and stem cell self-renewal. New insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying ischemic tolerance is highlighted by the finding that ischemic preconditioning activates polycomb proteins in mature neurons. Polycomb proteins act through epigenetic gene silencing to eradicate potential mediators of neuronal death and promote cellular arrest, enabling mature neurons to survive ischemic stroke.
Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience, Rose F. Kennedy Center, Room 610, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461, USA. suzanne.zukin@einstein.yu.edu
R Suzanne
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Zukin
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D016923:Cell Death; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D020868:Gene Silencing; D006801:Humans; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology*; D063146:Polycomb-Group Proteins; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000502:physiology*
D063146:Polycomb-Group Proteins; D012097:Repressor Proteins