title: Gene expression in human embryonic stem cell lines: unique molecular signature.
abstract: Human embryonic stem (huES) cells have the ability to differentiate into a variety of cell lineages and potentially provide a source of differentiated cells for many therapeutic uses. However, little is known about the mechanism of differentiation of huES cells and factors regulating cell development. We have used high-quality microarrays containing 16 659 seventy-base pair oligonucleotides to examine gene expression in 6 of the 11 available huES cell lines. Expression was compared against pooled RNA from multiple tissues (universal RNA) and genes enriched in huES cells were identified. All 6 cell lines expressed multiple markers of the undifferentiated state and shared significant homology in gene expression (overall similarity coefficient > 0.85).A common subset of 92 genes was identified that included Nanog, GTCM-1, connexin 43 (GJA1), oct-4, and TDGF1 (cripto). Gene expression was confirmed by a variety of techniques including comparison with databases, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, focused cDNA microarrays, and immunocytochemistry. Comparison with published "stemness" genes revealed a limited overlap, suggesting little similarity with other stem cell populations. Several novel ES cell-specific expressed sequence tags were identified and mapped to the human genome. These results represent the first detailed characterization of undifferentiated huES cells and provide a unique set of markers to profile and better understand the biology of huES cells.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Molecular Tumor Biology, Division of Cellular and Gene Therapies, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
authors.forename: Bhaskar
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bhattacharya
authors.forename: Takumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Miura
authors.forename: Ralph
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Brandenberger
authors.forename: Josef
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mejido
authors.forename: Yongquan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Amy X
authors.initials: AX
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Bharat H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Joshi
authors.forename: Irene
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ginis
authors.forename: R Scott
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Thies
authors.forename: Michal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Amit
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Lyons
authors.forename: Brian G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Condie
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Itskovitz-Eldor
authors.forename: Mahendra S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: Raj K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Puri
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000235:genetics; D002460:Cell Line; D019295:Computational Biology; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D015870:Gene Expression; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005819:Genetic Markers; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D051379:Mice; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D005819:Genetic Markers