Egr-1 | Ricerc@Sapienza

Heme oxygenase-1 and brain oxysterols metabolism are linked to Egr-1 expression in aged mice cortex, but not in hippocampus

Throughout life, stress stimuli act upon the brain leading to morphological and functional
changes in advanced age, when it is likely to develop neurodegenerative disorders.
There is an increasing need to unveil the molecular mechanisms underlying aging,
in a world where populations are getting older. Egr-1 (early growth response 1), a
transcriptional factor involved in cell survival, proliferation and differentiation – with a role
also in memory, cognition and synaptic plasticity, can be implicated in the molecular

Egr1 maintains NSC proliferation and its overexpression counteracts cell cycle exit triggered by the withdrawal of Epidermal Growth Factor

In adult mammals, neural stem cells (NSCs) reside in specialized niches at the level of selected CNS regions, such as the subventricular zone (SVZ). The signalling pathways that regulate NSCs proliferation and differentiation remain poorly understood. The early growth response gene 1 (Egr-1) is an important transcription factor, widely studied in the adult mammalian brain, mediating the activation of target genes by a variety of extracellular stimuli.