This study compares cardiac induction time-courses using (i) wild-type hESCs subjected to a standard directed differentiation protocol, (ii) EOMES knockout hESCs subjected to the same protocol, and (iii) EOMES KO / TET-ON hESCs subjected to a TET-ON protocol.
Cardiogenic programming of human pluripotent stem cells by dose-controlled activation of EOMES.
Cell line, Time
View SamplesHuman ES cells respond to activation of the BMP and WNT signaling by upregulating target genes. A 4h time-point following signaling factor stimulation was chosen to reveal immediate-early induced genes which are likely to be direct targets.
Cardiogenic programming of human pluripotent stem cells by dose-controlled activation of EOMES.
Cell line, Treatment, Time
View SamplesCurrently there is a lack of effective therapies which result in long-term durable response for patients presenting with advanced and metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). This is due in part to a lack of molecular factors which can be targeted pharmacologically. In order to identify novel tumor-specific targets, we performed high throughput gene array analysis screening numerous patient ccRCC tumor tissues across all stages of disease, and compared their gene expression levels to matched normal kidney. Our results identify a number of genes which demonstrate tumor-specific overexpression, and may present as novel targets for therapy.
Neuronal pentraxin 2 supports clear cell renal cell carcinoma by activating the AMPA-selective glutamate receptor-4.
Specimen part
View SamplesThis study compares directed cardiac differentiation time-courses using (i) HuES6 cells with endogenous ISL1 knockout + inducible ISL1 transgene, and (ii) wild-type HuES6 cells.
Revised roles of ISL1 in a hES cell-based model of human heart chamber specification.
Specimen part, Time
View SamplesIn pluripotential reprogramming, a pluripotent state is established within somatic cells. In this study, we have generated induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from bi-maternal (uniparental) parthenogenetic neural stem cells (pNSCs) by transduction with four (Oct4, Klf4, Sox2, and c-Myc) or two (Oct4 and Klf4) transcription factors. The parthenogenetic iPS (piPS) cells directly reprogrammed from pNSCs were able to generate germline-competent himeras, and hierarchical clustering analysis showed that piPS cells were clustered more closer to parthenogenetic ES cells than normal female ES cells. Interestingly, piPS cells showed loss of parthenogenetic-specific imprinting patterns of donor cells. Microarray data also showed that the maternally imprinted genes, which were not expressed in pNSCs, were upregulated in piPS cells, indicating that pluripotential reprogramming lead to induce loss of imprinting as well as re-establishment of various features of pluripotent cells in parthenogenetic somatic cells.
Generation of parthenogenetic induced pluripotent stem cells from parthenogenetic neural stem cells.
Sex, Specimen part
View SamplesExpression of germ cell nuclear factor (GCNF, Nr6a1), an orphan member of the nuclear receptor gene family of transcription factors, during gastrulation and neurulation is critical for normal embryogenesis in mice. Gcnf represses the expression of the POU domain transcription factor Oct4 (Pou5f1) during mouse post-implantation development. Although Gcnf expression is not critical for the embryonic segregation of the germ cell lineage, we found that sexually dimorphic expression of Gcnf in germ cells correlates with the expression of pluripotency-associated genes, such as Oct4, Sox2, and Nanog, as well as the early meiotic marker gene Stra8. To elucidate the role of Gcnf during mouse germ cell differentiation, we generated an ex vivo Gcnf-knockdown model in combination with a regulated CreLox mutation of Gcnf. Lack of Gcnf impairs normal spermatogenesis and oogenesis in vivo, as well as the derivation of germ cells from embryonic stem cells (ESCs) in vitro. Inactivation of the Gcnf gene in vivo leads to loss of repression of Oct4 expression in both male and female gonads.
Germ cell nuclear factor regulates gametogenesis in developing gonads.
Specimen part
View SamplesA causal role of mutations in genes encoding for multiple general transcription factors in neurodevelopmental disorders including autism suggested that alterations at the global level of gene expression regulation might also relate to disease risk in sporadic cases of autism. This premise can be tested by evaluating for global changes in the overall distribution of gene expression levels. For instance, in mice, we recently showed that variability in hippocampal-dependent behaviors was associated with variability in the pattern of the overall distribution of gene expression levels, as assessed by variance in the distribution of gene expression levels in the hippocampus. We hypothesized that a similar change in the variance in gene expression levels might be found in children with autism. Gene expression microarrays covering greater than 47,000 unique RNA transcripts were done on purified RNA from peripheral blood lymphocytes of children with autism (n=82) and controls (n=64). The variance in the distribution of gene expression levels from each microarray was compared between groups of children. Also tested was whether a risk factor for autism, increased paternal age, was associated with variance in the overall distribution of gene expression levels. A decrease in the variance in the distribution of gene expression levels in peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) was associated with the diagnosis of autism and a risk factor for autism, increased paternal age. Traditional approaches to microarray analysis of gene expression suggested a possible mechanism for decreased variance in gene expression. Gene expression pathways involved in transcriptional regulation were down-regulated in the blood of children with autism and children of older fathers. Thus, results from global and gene specific approaches to studying microarray data were complimentary and supported the hypothesis that alterations at the global level of gene expression regulation are related to autism and increased paternal age. Regulation of transcription, thus, represents a possible point of convergence for multiple etiologies of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.
Autism and increased paternal age related changes in global levels of gene expression regulation.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesConrad et al. Nature 456, 344349 (2008) have generated human adult germline stem cells (haGSCs) from human testicular tissue, which they claim have similar pluripotent properties to human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). Here we investigate the pluripotency of haGSCs by using global gene-expression analysis based on their gene array data and comparing the expression of pluripotency marker genes in haGSCs and hESCs, and in haGSCs and human fibroblast samples derived from different laboratories, including our own. We find that haGSCs and fibroblasts have a similar gene-expression profile, but that haGSCs and hESCs do not. The pluripotency of Conrad and colleagues haGSCs is therefore called into question.
Human adult germline stem cells in question.
Specimen part
View SamplesPluripotency is the differentiation capacity of particular cells exhibited in the early embryo in vivo and embryonic stem (ES) cells have been shown to originate from the inner cell mass (ICM) of an E3.5 blastocyst. Although the potential for ES cells to differentiate into the three germ layers is equated to ICM cells, they differ in the ability to maintain the capacity for self-renewal. Despite several studies on the maintenance of ES cells in the ground state of pluripotency, the precise mechanism of conversion from the ICM to the ES cell remains unclear. Here , we have examined the cell characteristics and expression profile within the intermediate stages of ES cell derivation from the ICM. Gene clustering and ontology (GO) analyses showed a significant change in the expression of epigenetic modifiers and DNA methylation-related genes in the intermediate stages. We have proposed that an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) blockage is required during derivation of mouse ES cells from E3.5 blastocysts. This study suggests a novel mechanistic insight into ES cell derivation and provides a time-course transcriptome profiling resource for the dissection of gene regulatory networks that underlie the transition from ICM to ES cells.
Blockage of the Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition Is Required for Embryonic Stem Cell Derivation.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesMouse and human stem cells with features similar to those of embryonic stem cells have been derived from testicular cells. Although pluripotent stem cells have been obtained from defined germline stem cells (GSCs) of mouse neonatal testis, only multipotent stem cells have been obtained so far from defined cells of mouse adult testis. In this study we describe a robust and reproducible protocol for obtaining germline-derived pluripotent stem (gPS) cells from adult unipotent GSCs. Pluripotency of gPS cells was confirmed by in vitro and in vivo differentiation, including germ cell contribution and transmission. As determined by clonal analyses, gPS cells indeed originate from unipotent GSCs. We propose that the conversion process requires a GSC culture microenvironment that depends on the initial number of plated GSCs and the length of culture time.
Induction of pluripotency in adult unipotent germline stem cells.
No sample metadata fields
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