Roles of Dppa2 in the regulation of the present status and future of pluripotent stem cells.

Maintenance of undifferentiated states of pluripotent embryonic stem cells is regulated by a complex network of transcription factors and signaling pathways. Recent reports revealed that developmental pluripotency-associated 2 (Dppa2), which regulates chromatin structures, plays important roles in the maintenance of pluripotency and proliferation of embryonic stem cells. Interestingly, developmental pluripotency-associated 2 is involved not only in the normal development of lung but also in the pathogenesis of non-small cell lung cancers. These results suggest that an epigenetic regulator of pluripotent stem cells plays important roles in normal development and tumorigenesis.