title: MicroRNA expression profiling of single whole embryonic stem cells.
abstract: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of 17-25 nt non-coding RNAs that have been shown to have critical functions in a wide variety of biological processes during development. Recently developed miRNA microarray techniques have helped to accelerate research on miRNAs. However, in some instances there is only a limited amount of material available for analysis, which requires more sensitive techniques that can preferably work on single cells. Here we demonstrate that it is possible to analyse miRNA in single cells by using a real-time PCR-based 220-plex miRNA expression profiling method. Development of this technique will greatly facilitate miRNA-related research on cells, such as the founder population of primordial germ cells where rapid and dynamic changes occur in a few cells, and for analysing heterogeneous population of cells. In these and similar cases, our method of single cell analysis is critical for elucidating the diverse roles of miRNAs.
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute of Cancer and Developmental Biology, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge, CB2 1QN, UK.
authors.forename: Fuchou
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hajkova
authors.forename: Sheila C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Barton
authors.forename: Kaiqin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lao
authors.forename: M Azim
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Surani
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian / Q000166:cytology*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods*; D051379:Mice; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs