title: Potential roles of 5´ UTR and 3´ UTR regions in post-trans-criptional regulation of mouse Oct4 gene in BMSC and P19 cells.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  OCT4 is a transcription factor required for pluripotency during early embryogenesis and the maintenance of identity of embryonic stem cells and pluripotent cells. Therefore, the effective expression regulation of this gene is highly critical. UTR regions are of great significance to gene regulation. In this study, we aimed to investigate the potential regulatory role played by 5´UTR and 3´UTR of the Oct4 gene in mouse BMSC and P19 cells.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Oct4 5´UTR and 3´UTR sequences were cloned into pGL3 luciferase plasmid which led to the generation of pGL3 5´-UTR, pGL3 5´&3´-UTRs and pGL3 3´-UTR vectors. The vectors were transfected into BMSC and P19 cells followed by luciferase assay.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The assay of luciferase expression exhibited a direct link between the presence of Oct4 3´- UTR and the decrease of luciferase count in both cell lines; whereas 5´UTR indicated diverse behaviors in two cells. This discrepancy could be explained in view of the difference of cellular contexts in which the Oct4 UTRs act.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study sheds some light on the role of UTR regions of mouse Oct4 in regulating post-transcriptional gene expression in pluripotent cells. These data represent potential to be used for the development of novel therapeutic approaches for a variety of malignancies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Faculty of Biological Science, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Saeedeh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ghiasvand
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Faculty of Biological Science, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Babak
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bakhshinejad
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Faculty of Biological Science, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Seyed Javad
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Mowla
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Majid
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sadeghizadeh
keywords: BMSC; Luciferase; OCT4; P19; Post-transcriptional regulation; UTR