title: Molecular signature of human amniotic fluid stem cells during fetal development.
abstract: Mid-gestation c-KIT(+) amniotic fluid stem cells (AFSC) have an intermediate phenotype between embryonic and adult stem cells and are easy to reprogram to pluripotency. We previously showed that 1st trimester AFSC can be reprogrammed to functional pluripotency in a transgene-free approach. Despite both parental populations sharing a common phenotype, expressing CD29, CD44, CD73, CD90, CD105, SSEA4 and OCT4, 2nd trimester AFSC, contrary to 1st trimester cells, do not express NANOG, SSEA3, TRA-1-60 and TRA-1-81, and have slower growth kinetics. Here, we used the Illumina Beadstudio microarray platform to analyse the transcriptome of 1st and 2nd trimester AFSC and show a unique 1st trimester AFSC-specific gene expression signature consisting of 366 genes and a larger set of 603 genes common with hESC compared to 496 genes overlapping between 2nd trimester AFSC and hESC. We conclude that both populations are related but distinct to each other as well as to hESC.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology, Imperial College London, London, W12 0NN, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Dafni
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Moschidou
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Drews
authors.forename: Ayad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Eddaoudi
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Adjaye
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: De Coppi
authors.forename: Pascale V
authors.initials: PV
authors.lastname: Guillot
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000653:Amniotic Fluid / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005260:Female; D047109:Fetal Development; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D011247:Pregnancy; D011261:Pregnancy Trimester, First / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D011262:Pregnancy Trimester, Second / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers