Hum. Reprod. Advance Access originally published online on October 20, 2005
Human Reproduction 2006 21(2):405-412; doi:10.1093/humrep/dei328
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Transcriptional profiling of the developmentally important signalling pathways in human embryonic stem cells


1 Laboratory of Development and Differentiation, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB), 52 Eoeun-dong Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-806, 2 Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, College of Medicine, Hanyang University, Seoul and 3 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
These authors contributed equally to this work
4 To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ymhan{at}kribb.re.kr
BACKGROUND: Embryonic stem cells (ESC) maintain their stemness by self-renewal. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying self-renewal of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) remain to be elucidated. In this study, expression profiles of the molecules of developmentally important signalling pathways were investigated to better understand the relationships of the signalling pathways for self-renewal in hESC. METHODS: Two human ESC lines were cultured on mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) feeder cells. Gene expression was analysed by RT-PCR, real-time RT-PCR and Western blotting. RESULTS: In the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP4), transforming growth factor (TGF-
) and fibroblast growth factor (FGF4) signalling pathways, ligands and antagonists were highly expressed in hESC compared with human embryoid body (hEB). Human ESC showed abundant transcripts of intracellular molecules in the Wnt, Hh and Notch signalling pathways. No difference was detected in the expression level of the JAK/STAT signalling molecules between hESC and hEB. Western blot analysis showed that the transcriptional levels of the signalling molecules in hESC were consistent with translational levels. From the real-time PCR analysis, expression levels of some genes, such as Oct3/4, Nodal and
-catenin, were different between two hESC lines. CONCLUSION: The self-renewal of hESC is probably maintained by coordinated regulation of signalling-specific molecules and in a signalling-specific manner.
Key words: human embryoid body/human embryonic stem cells/self-renewal/signalling pathways/transcription level
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