title: Embryonic stem cell differentiation studied by FT-IR spectroscopy.
abstract: We propose, here, an FT-IR method to monitor the spontaneous differentiation of murine embryonic stem (ES) cells in their early development. Principal component analysis and subsequent linear discriminant analysis enabled us to segregate stem cell spectra into separate clusters - corresponding to different differentiation times - and to identify the most significant spectral changes during differentiation. Between days 4 to 7 of differentiation, these spectral changes in the protein amide I band (1700-1600 cm(-1)) and in the nucleic acid absorption region (1050-850 cm(-1)) indicated that mRNA translation was taking place and that specific proteins were produced, reflecting the appearance of a new phenotype. The DNA/RNA hybrid bands (954 cm(-1) and 899 cm(-1)) were also observed, suggesting that the transcriptional switch of the genome started at this stage of differentiation. As confirmed by cytochemical assays, the FT-IR approach presented here allows to detect at molecular level the biological events of ES cell differentiation as they take place and to monitor in a rapid way the temporal evolution of the ES cell culture.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biotecnologie e Bioscienze, Università di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 2, 20126 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Diletta
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ami
authors.forename: Tui
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Neri
authors.forename: Antonino
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Natalello
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mereghetti
authors.forename: Silvia Maria
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Doglia
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zanoni
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zuccotti
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Garagna
authors.forename: Carlo Alberto
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Redi
mesh_terms: D000577:Amides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D048430:Cell Shape; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000737:chemistry / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac / Q000166:cytology; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000577:Amides; D011506:Proteins