title: Tracing the stemness of porcine skin-derived progenitors (pSKP) back to specific marker gene expression.
abstract: Multipotent skin-derived progenitors (SKP) can produce both neural and mesodermal progeny in vitro, sharing the characteristics of embryonic neural crest stem cells. However, the molecular basis for the property of multiple lineage potential and neural crest origin of SKPs is still elusive. Here we report the cooperative expression of pluripotency related genes (POU5F1, SOX2, NANOG, STAT3) and neural crest marker genes (p75NTR, TWIST1, PAX3, SNAI2, SOX9, SOX10) in GFP-transgenic porcine skin-derived progenitors (pSKP). The proportion of cells positive for POU5F1, nestin, fibronectin, and vimentin were 12.3%, 15.1%, 67.9% and 53.7%, showing the heterogeneity of pSKP spheres. Moreover, pSKP cells can generate both neural (neurons and glia) and mesodermal cell types (smooth muscle cells and adipocytes) in vitro, indicating the multiple lineage potency. Four transcription factors (POU5F1, SNAI2, SOX9, and PAX3) were identified that were sensitive to mitogen (FBS) and/or growth factors (EGF and bFGF). We infer that POU5F1, SNAI2, SOX9, and PAX3 may be the key players for maintaining the neural crest derived multipotency of SKP cells in vitro. This study has provided new insight into the molecular mechanism of stemness for somatic-derived stem cells at the level of transcriptional regulation.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biotechnology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Mingtao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: S Clay
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Isom
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Yanhong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jianguo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Jeffrey J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Whyte
authors.forename: Kyle B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Dobbs
authors.forename: Randall S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Prather
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D019070:Cell Lineage / Q000235:genetics*; D003470:Culture Media / Q000494:pharmacology; D015870:Gene Expression; D005819:Genetic Markers; D009432:Neural Crest / Q000378:metabolism; D039904:Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D012867:Skin / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D013552:Swine
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media; D005819:Genetic Markers