What is the function of the AIRE gene at the embryonic stage?
Aire regulates the expression of differentiation-associated genes and self-renewal of embryonic stem cells. Aire and Deaf1 help regulate the ectopic expression of diverse tissue-specific antigens to establish self-immune tolerance. Knockdown of Aire in mouse ESCs resulted in significantly decreased clone-forming efficiency as well as attenuated cell cycle, suggesting Aire plays a role in ESC self-renewal. Aire promotes the expression of the pluripotent factor Lin28 and the self-renewal of ES cells.