Brief Communications abstract
Nature Biotechnology 26, 313 - 315 (2008)
Published online: 17 February 2008 | doi:10.1038/nbt1383
Marked differences in differentiation propensity among human embryonic stem cell lines
Kenji Osafune1,2,3, Leslie Caron1,4,8, Malgorzata Borowiak1,2,8, Rita J Martinez1,2, Claire S Fitz-Gerald1,2, Yasunori Sato5, Chad A Cowan1,4,6, Kenneth R Chien1,4,7 & Douglas A Melton1,2
The differentiation potential of 17 human embryonic stem (hES) cell lines was compared. Some lines exhibit a marked propensity to differentiate into specific lineages, often with >100-fold differences in lineage-specific gene expression. For example, HUES 8 is best for pancreatic differentiation and HUES 3 for cardiomyocyte generation. These non-trivial differences in developmental potential among hES cell lines point to the importance of screening and deriving lines for lineage-specific differentiation.
- Harvard Stem Cell Institute, 42 Church Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
- Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 7 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
- ICORP Organ Regeneration Project, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8902 Japan.
- Massachusetts General Hospital–Cardiovascular Research Center, Charles River Plaza/CPZN 3208, 185 Cambridge Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA.
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, 655 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
- Stowers Medical Institute, Charles River Plaza/CPZN 3208, 185 Cambridge Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA.
- Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
- These authors contributed equally to this work.
Correspondence to: Douglas A Melton1,2 e-mail: dmelton@harvard.edu
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