title: Transcriptional Profiles of Imprinted Genes in Human Embryonic Stem Cells During In vitro Differentiation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Genomic imprinting is an inheritance phenomenon by which a subset of genes are expressed from one allele of two homologous chromosomes in a parent of origin-specific manner. Even though fine-tuned regulation of genomic imprinting process is essential for normal development, no other means are available to study genomic imprinting in human during embryonic development. In relation with this bottleneck, differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) into specialized lineages may be considered as an alternative to mimic human development.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this study, hESCs were differentiated into three lineage cell types to analyze temporal and spatial expression of imprinted genes. Of 19 imprinted genes examined, 15 imprinted genes showed similar transcriptional level among two hESC lines and two human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) lines. Expressional patterns of most imprinted genes were varied in progenitors and fully differentiated cells which were derived from hESCs. Also, no consistence was observed in the expression pattern of imprinted genes within an imprinting domain during in vitro differentiation of hESCs into three lineage cell types.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Transcriptional expression of imprinted genes is regulated in a cell type- specific manner in hESCs during in vitro differentiation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences and Center for Stem Cell Differentiation, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon.
authors.forename: Sang-Wook
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences and Center for Stem Cell Differentiation, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon.
authors.forename: Hyo-Sang
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Do
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences and Center for Stem Cell Differentiation, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon.
authors.forename: Dongkyu
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Ji-Yun
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Ko
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Sang-Hun
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences and Center for Stem Cell Differentiation, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon.
authors.forename: Yong-Mahn
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Han
keywords: Genomic imprinting; Human embryonic stem cells; In vitro differentiation; Transcriptional expression