title: Qualification of embryonal carcinoma 2102Ep as a reference for human embryonic stem cell research.
abstract: As the number of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines increases, so does the need for systematic evaluation of each line's characteristics and potential. Comparisons between lines are complicated by variations in culture conditions, feeders, spontaneous differentiation, and the absence of standardized assays. These difficulties, combined with the inability of most labs to maintain more than a few lines simultaneously, compel the development of reference standards to which hESC lines can be compared. The use of a stable cell line as a reference standard offers many advantages. A line with a relatively unchanging hESC-like gene and protein expression pattern could be a positive control for developing assays. It can be used as a reference for genomics or proteomics studies, especially for normalizing results obtained in separate laboratories. Such a cell line should be widely available without intellectual property restraints, easily cultured without feeders, and resistant to spontaneous changes in phenotype. We propose that the embryonal carcinoma (EC) line 2102Ep meets these requirements. We compared the protein, gene, and microRNA expression of this cell line with those of hESC lines and alternative reference lines such as the EC line NTERA-2 and the karyotypically abnormal hESC line BG01V. The overall expression profiles of all these lines were similar, with exceptions reflecting the germ cell origins of EC. On the basis of global gene and microRNA expression, 2102Ep is somewhat less similar to hESC than the alternatives; however, 2102Ep expresses more hESC-associated microRNAs than NTERA-2 does, and fewer markers of differentiated fates.
authors.affiliation: GlobalStem, Inc., 6 Taft Court, Rockville, Maryland 20850, USA. rjosephson@globalstem.com
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Josephson
authors.forename: Carol J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Ording
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Soojung
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Uma
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Lakshmipathy
authors.forename: Araz
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Toumadje
authors.forename: Bradley
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Love
authors.forename: Jonathan D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Chesnut
authors.forename: Peter W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Andrews
authors.forename: Mahendra S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: Jonathan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Auerbach
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D018236:Carcinoma, Embryonal / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D051379:Mice; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D012015:Reference Standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D035683:MicroRNAs