Journal
STEM CELLS
Volume 26, Issue 6, Pages 1506-1516Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1634/stemcells.2007-1081
Keywords
embryonic stem cells; adult stem cells; microRNA; oligonucleotide microarray; gene expression profiling
Categories
Funding
- NIMH NIH HHS [R33 MH087925, R21 MH087925] Funding Source: Medline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Embryonic stem cells are unique among cultured cells in their ability to self-renew and differentiate into a wide diversity of cell types, suggesting that a specific molecular control network underlies these features. Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are known to have distinct mRNA expression, global DNA methylation, and chromatin profiles, but the involvement of high-level regulators, such as microRNAs (miRNA), in the hESC-specific molecular network is poorly understood. We report that global miRNA expression profiling of hESCs and a variety of stem cell and differentiated cell types using a novel microarray platform revealed a unique set of miRNAs differentially regulated in hESCs, including numerous miRNAs not previously linked to hESCs. These hESC-associated miRNAs were more likely to be located in large genomic clusters, and less likely to be located in introns of coding genes. hESCs had higher expression of oncogenic miRNAs and lower expression of tumor suppressor miRNAs than the other cell types. Many miRNAs upregulated in hESCs share a common consensus seed sequence, suggesting that there is cooperative regulation of a critical set of target miRNAs. We propose that miRNAs are coordinately controlled in hESCs, and are key regulators of pluripotence and differentiation.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available