Does in silico tandem affinity purification refine an Oct4 interaction list?
Using a total of four different tags, we found 33 potential Oct4 interactors, of which 30 are novel. In addition to transcriptional regulation, the molecular function associated with these Oct4-associated proteins includes various other catalytic activities, suggesting that, aside from chromosome remodeling and transcriptional regulation, Oct4 function extends more widely to other essential cellular mechanisms. Our findings show that multiple purification approaches are needed to uncover a comprehensive Oct4 protein interaction network.
These findings demonstrated that BMSCs directly modulate HSCs in vitro via Notch signaling cascades. Our results may provide new insights into the treatment of hepatic fibrosis with BMSCs.