Developmental Regulation of Prion Expression in Cattle and Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells

The study investigated the expression and role of the cellular prion protein (PrPC) in cattle and mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs). PrPC was found to be highly expressed in the central nervous system, thymus, and testes, and associated with cellular differentiation processes such as spermatogenesis and hair follicle regeneration. In bovine embryos, PrPC expression peaked at critical developmental stages. In mESCs, PrPC expression increased during differentiation, particularly when induced with retinoic acid, suggesting its involvement in neurogenesis. Knockdown experiments showed that reduced PrPC levels led to decreased expression of nestin, a neural progenitor marker, indicating that PrPC plays a role in neural differentiation upstream of nestin expression. The findings suggested an important biological role for PrPC in neurogenic differentiation.