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Updated: May 29, 2026

Analysis of Retinoic Acid-induced Neural Differentiation of Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells in Two and Three-dimensional Embryoid Bodies
Published on: April 22, 2017
Increased expression of Syne1/nesprin-1 facilitates nuclear envelope structure changes in embryonic stem cell
Elizabeth R Smith1, Xiao-Ying Zhang, Callinice D Capo-Chichi
1Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, Department of Medicine, and Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, Florida, USA.
None:
We found by electron microscopy that the inter-membrane space of embryonic stem cells is irregular and generally wider than in differentiated cells. Among a panel of nuclear envelope structural proteins examined, the expression of Syne1/nesprin-1 was found to be greatly induced upon differentiation. Down-regulation of Syne1 by siRNA in differentiated embryonic stem cells caused the nuclear envelope to adopt a configuration resembling that found in undifferentiated embryonic stem cells. Suppression of Syne1 expression did not produce a detectable impact on the retinoic acid-induced differentiation of embryonic stem cells; however, forced expression of Syne1 enhanced the tendency of the cells to lose pluripotency. Thus, we found that low expression of Syne1 splicing isoforms accounts for the wider and irregular nuclear envelope inter-membrane space in embryonic stem cells. We conclude that the nuclear envelope structural change accompanying differentiation likely participates in promoting the differential chromatin organization of the differentiated cells.
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