Gene Expression Signatures Defining Fundamental Biological Processes in Pluripotent, Early, and Late Differentiated Embryonic Stem Cells

Demethylation of CpG islands in the 5' upstream regions mediates the expression of the human testis-specific gene MAGEB16 and its mouse homolog Mageb16

“…These results indicate that Mageb16 may play a role in mouse spermatogenesis. In addition, a recent study described that the mouse Mageb16 gene was expressed at a high level in undifferentiated embryonic stem cells (ESCs), but the expression was very low in somatic cells derived from ESCs (15), which indicates that the Mageb16 gene may also be involved in the proliferation and differentiation of ESCs. Further investigations into these potential biological functions of the Mageb16 gene could be undertaken using ESCs as an in vitro model.…”

Unique Metabolic Features of Stem Cells, Cardiomyocytes, and Their Progenitors

“…44,72,73 To identify fundamental differentiation networks and pathways during the differentiation of ESCs, we recently published whole-genome gene expression profiling of undifferentiated versus differentiated mESCs. 13,74,75 Unique gene clusters clearly depicting their functional participation both at undifferentiated and specific cell-type-associated lineage specification have been identified using clustering techniques. These gene clusters have been used to capture the enrichment of metabolic biological processes and pathways, particularly those associated with energy substrate metabolism.…”

“…Moreover, a set of differentiated cardiovascular cell types has been derived from ESCs (Figures 3 and 4). 13,[77][78][79][80][81][82] Figure 3. Statistical determination of differentially expressed genes from the transcriptome data set of murine embryonic stem cells (ESCs) randomly differentiated into 10-day old embryoid bodies (EBs) (time kinetic, random differentiation).…”

“…Red, black, and green indicate overexpression, medium expression, and low expression, respectively. Among the 10 specific gene clusters obtained genes from clusters 8 and 9, visualized to have a high expression level in undifferentiated ESCs, and clusters 2 and 3, including genes with a low expression level, were chosen to identify unique metabolism-related genes using the David Functional Enrichment tool (meta-analysis of gene microarray data as described previously 13 ). K-means cluster analysis was performed after transcriptwise normalization of signal values to a mean of 0 and SD of 1 using Euclidean distance measurement and k=10, using cluster 3.0 tool from the Eisen laboratory.…”

“…The developmental program can be partly recapitulated in vitro through the use of cultured PSCs, including embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) that are capable of self-renewal and differentiation into specialized cells of the ectodermal, endodermal, and mesodermal germ layers and, in later stages, into somatic cell types. [12][13][14][15] Adult stem cells, such as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and neural stem cells, are quiescent cells capable of self-renewal for long periods of time and are only capable of differentiating into a few specialized cell types. In the past decade, significant progress has been made in the identification of genetic, epigenetic, and signal transduction pathways that control the stemness (ie, self-renewal) and differentiation fate of iPSCs.…”